Crystal Palace 1-0 Manchester City: Eze and Henderson come up trumps as Eagles edge FA Cup final to end 31-year trophy drought | OneFootball

Crystal Palace upset the odds to beat Manchester City in the 2024-25 FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.

Featuring in their first cup final since 2016, Oliver Glasner’s men were up against it against a City outfit seeking to somewhat redeem what has been an underwhelming season.

The first real chance of the contest fell to Erling Braut Haaland as he extended his huge frame to get on the end of Kevin De Bruyne’s delivery.

However, Dean Henderson was on hand to deny the Norwegian a first Wembley goal in six appearances.

City continued to dominate proceedings and threatened the Palace goal through Josko Gvardiol and Manuel Akanji in quick succession.

From their first real inquest into City territory, Palace broke the deadlock in the 16th minute thanks to Eberechi Eze’s sweeping finish inside the box from a Daniel Munoz cross.

Lightning nearly struck twice four minutes later when Munoz turned provider once again, but Stefan Ortega dealt well with Ismaila Sarr’s effort this time around.

Palace goalkeeper Henderson had a heart-in-mouth moment as he looked to have handled the ball outside the penalty area, although VAR adjudged the reverse was the case.

City were presented with a glorious opportunity to level matters from the spot 10 minutes shy of half time, but Omar Marmoush was denied by Henderson, who also got up quickly to smother Haaland’s follow-up effort.

Henderson was having arguably the best half of his career and produced yet another stunning save to deny Jeremy Doku a 43rd-minute leveller before De Bruyne fired the resulting rebound over.

That was the first half’s final attacking moment as Palace headed to the dressing room with a priceless advantage.

City picked up where they left off before the break and started the second half on the front foot in search of parity, albeit all to no avail.

Palace nearly delivered another sucker punch down the other end when Munoz fired home from close range after a squabble in the box from a long throw, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.

The Cityzens struggled to break down a resolute Palace rearguard in the phase of play that ensued before Nico O’Reilly was presented with a glorious opportunity to draw his side level 15 minutes from time.

However, the youngster’s indecisiveness in front of goal proved costly.

Having been thrown into the mix with City desperate for a goal, Claudio Echeverri almost had a debut to remember, but Henderson was up to the task again.

Munoz nearly capped off a fine individual display with a goal four minutes from the end of normal time when he sent an effort sailing wide of Ortega’s left-hand post.

With 10 minutes of stoppage time added on, City continued to push forward but could not get past a stubborn Palace outfit, who held on to pick up their first piece of silverware since 1994.

The Eagles will now participate in next season’s Europa League, further complicating things for Man City in their Champions League hunt.