3️⃣ things we learned from the FA Cup final | OneFootball

Crystal Palace upset the odds in the FA Cup final with a 1-0 win over Manchester City.

Here's what we made of it all.

Eagles finally soar into history

📸 Shaun Botterill - 2025 Getty Images

It was a moment that had been 35 years in the making.

Crystal Palace's previous FA Cup final outings saw South London-born players open the scoring before they were pegged back and, ultimately, denied in extra time.

But third time proved a charm as they finally made history.

Unfancied and outplayed in the opening stages, the Eagles stunned Manchester City's juggernaut through Eberechi Eze's clinical opener and never looked back.

Dean Henderson's penalty heroics later in the half and a disallowed second goal underlined that this was not a fluke victory for Oliver Glasner's side at Wembley.

Since the Austrian took charge last February, they have become one of the Premier League's most exciting teams and now have a tangible reward for that progress.

Is this the end of City's dominance?

📸 GLYN KIRK - AFP or licensors

Pep Guardiola was supposed to be write his name in the record books, and he has.

Yet the Manchester City boss could be forgiven for wondering if back-to-back cup final losses is a sign of wider problems with his previously all-conquering charges.

His first trophyless campaign at the Etihad Stadium since finishing empty-handed in 2016/17 places Guardiola's current body of work back under the spotlight.

There's no sugarcoating it - City were too wasteful and looked to outgoing talisman Kevin de Bruyne for moments of inspiration that were never truly forthcoming.

Erling Haaland, too, failed to live up to expectations as the Blues face a summer of transition and, as things stand, risk a season away from the Champions League.

Are we finally seeing the end of an era?

Cup final recaptures its appeal

📸 Mike Hewitt - 2025 Getty Images

The FA Cup continues to hold a special place in the hearts of football's ardent traditionalists but it has undeniably lost its allure during recent times.

From the Premier League to the Champions League, the world's most famous club cup competition found itself superseded by those with greater reach and prestige

One-sided finals and teams treating it with more disdain than globetrotting pre-season friendlies have done little to maintain its appeal in the past decade.

There is, however, no denying that this occasion recaptured the imagination and Palace's fairy tale tells only half the story of why it was such a thrilling contest.

Close-run and feisty both on and off the pitch, as the altercation between City's physio and Palace coach Paddy McCarthy showed, provided a perfect recipe.

The hope is that this game will be a sign of things to come rather than a one-off.

📸 Mike Hewitt - 2025 Getty Images