History beckons for Crystal Palace at Wembley in today’s FA Cup final as Manchester City have one final shot at avoiding a rare trophyless season under Pep Guardiola.
Twice FA Cup runners-up, Palace have never won a major trophy in their 119-year history.
The Eagles sense this might finally be their time up against a City side far from their former glories of Guardiola’s trophy-laden reign.
Photo: Reuters
Palace warmed up for the Wembley showpiece by cruising to a 2-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur last weekend to equal their record of 49 Premier League points with two games of the season to spare.
The south London club finished in the top 10 for the first time in the Premier League era last season after just a few months under head coach Oliver Glasner.
Another top-half finish looks unlikely, but progress has continued under the Austrian thanks to their FA Cup heroics, including a comprehensive 3-0 victory over UEFA Champions League quarter-finalists Aston Villa in the semi-finals.
Eberechi Eze is the main man for City to fear with five goals in his past four games, but he is one of just four England internationals that reached the final of Euro 2024 likely to start for Palace on Saturday alongside Dean Henderson, Marc Guehi and Adam Wharton.
“It means everything,” Eze said on the prospect of delivering the club’s first taste of silverware. “We know what it means to the fans, to the club. We’re going to give everything that we’ve got to put ourselves in the best position. We’re confident. We know that we’ve just got to do what we do, and be the best version of ourselves and we’ve got the chance of beating any team.”
Victory would also secure entry to one of Europe’s major club competitions for the first time in Palace’s history with a place in the UEFA Europa League at stake.
City’s labored display in drawing a blank at Southampton last weekend gave Palace even more reason to believe.
However, Guardiola’s men are unbeaten in 10 games, including a 5-2 demolition of Palace in the Premier League last month, despite falling 2-0 behind.
City’s fightback at the Etihad Stadium that day was sparked by Kevin de Bruyne rolling back the years.
The Belgian has just three games left as a City player after a glorious decade in Manchester and will be aiming to add one more to his 14 major honors with the club.
“He has had an incredible time at Manchester City,” City’s Erling Haaland said. “It is ridiculous how many trophies he has won. Hopefully, he will get one more trophy.”
After an unprecedented four consecutive English top-flight titles, City find themselves battling just to secure a top-five Premier League finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League.
Anything other than victory would cap what Haaland described as a “horrendous” campaign for a squad of serial winners.
City have not ended a season without a trophy since Guardiola’s first at the club in 2016-2017.
“It is a good habit to reach Wembley and always important to win trophies. We have the FA Cup final to play for and in a horrific season we still managed to do this,” the Norwegian said.
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