Chelsea 0 Manchester City 1 - Breaking down Antoine Semenyo's 'genius' finish that won the FA Cup

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coach. In a first half of few chances, Erling Haaland had a goal disallowed for an offside in the build-up and Chelsea appealed without success for a penalty when Abdukodir Khusanov blocked off Joao Pedro in the box. Haaland had not scored in a final for City before the game but he delivered an assist for the opener when he fizzed the ball across goal and Semenyo flicked it with his right foot into the bottom corner. Chelsea again appealed for a penalty when Khusanov again used his strength in the box but it was an optimistic shout and Liam Delap, on as a substitute, headed their best chance of an equaliser wide in stoppage time. In truth it was not a classic final, but Semenyo’s winner will be one that is shown many more times. Here The Athletic’s Michael Cox, Simon Johnson, Sam Lee and Liam Twomey break down the key talking points. After 70 minutes of largely uneventful, attributional football, you reach the point where — as commentators always say — the match seems destined to be decided either by a mistake or a piece of genius. Happily, it was the latter. The build-up was nice enough: Erling Haaland dropping deep to link play and Bernardo Silva slowing the speed of the attack until Haaland was in a position to make the type of run into the channel that Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have relied upon regularly over the last decade. Haaland’s driven cut-back was hopeful. Antoine Semenyo’s finish was beautiful. This type of finish — on the volley, with the inside of one foot and directing the ball past the other foot — has become an increasingly common sight in football in the age of such technically gifted forwards. But Semenyo’s touch was wonderful, not simply using the pace on Haaland’s cut-back but actively pushing the ball towards the bottom corner, using the momentum of his run and adding a pirouette as he struck the ball to get the requisite velocity. It was out of keeping with everything that came beforehand, but was a great goal to win an FA Cup final, and a fitting match-winner too. Semenyo has worked his way through the footballing pyramid over the last nine years, having loan spells in the fifth, fourth and third tiers of English football, establishing himself at Championship level with Bristol City, then taking the step up to Premier League football with Bournemouth, then getting his chance at a big club in Manchester City. The final is invariably about the big boys, but the FA Cup is about the whole pyramid — and tonight there will be footballers across the country and down through the leagues, who will be telling their mates that they once played in a match alongside this season’s FA Cup final hero. Chelsea have made it a not-so-magnificent seven by losing yet another domestic cup final at Wembley Stadium and perhaps their best chance of playing in European competition next season has gone too. No one will fault their effort. They did make it hard for Manchester City at least, which is a vast improvement on their form over the last two months. But it was a familiar script against Pep Guardiola’s side, who they have not beaten or kept a clean sheet against since defeating them in the Champions League final five years ago (14 matches all competitions), Chelsea could not have wished for an easier path to get to the final. The highest-ranked team they faced until now was Leeds United, who sit 14th in the Premier League. All their other opponents play in the EFL. Manchester City was always going to be a tough obstacle to overcome, especially as Chelsea’s only victory over a top-flight side since March 4 was versus Leeds United in the semi-final here three weeks ago. Winning the FA Cup would not have redeemed the season, but there was the possibility of a significant damage limitation exercise. Chelsea still have a chance of qualifying for one of the European competitions via the Premier League. But they could be 11th by Sunday evening and they have just two matches remaining. Given the club have picked up just one point from their last seven fixtures, you have to wonder how motivated they will be after this latest heartbreak, even if rivals Tottenham are up next on Tuesday. Chelsea became the first club to lose six domestic cup finals in succession (three FA Cup, three Carabao Cup) when they were beaten by Liverpool in the League Cup final two years ago. Now they have extended a record no one wants even more. One of the scourges of the modern game is players going down easily to win a foul and get them out of trouble, and when you have a referee who is inclined to give any soft coming together, you get a particularly bitty game. And this needed all the help it could get to set pulses racing. Fortunately for the game overall, the referee Darren England’s threshold for what constitutes a foul was considerably higher when the ball got near the final third, particularly the penalty area, and so there was nothing doing for Chelsea when Abdukodir Khusanov tangled with Joao Pedro in the first half and Hato in the second. No doubt there will be some scrutiny of the decisions but any penalty would have been extremely soft. Khusanov actually got booked for another one of those comings-together, well outside the box, down near the touchline, but this was not a yellow-card sort of game, all blood and thunder. It was a bit of a damp squib overall and those little fouls were all too common — just not inside the area, and that seems about right. That is now 20 trophies (including Community Shields, which managers do) for Pep Guardiola in his decade in charge and although his recent press statements do suggest he is staying for another year, this could in fact be the last of the lot. Of course, City will be hoping to add the Premier League as well, and there is a remote possibility of that, and what a way that would be to bow out. This was City’s fourth FA Cup final in a row, the first time in history that has been done, and feats like those are what makes Guardiola’s reign so remarkable. During his time, City have won four Carabao Cups in a row, a domestic treble, a ‘proper’ treble, four titles in a row (never been done) and six titles out of seven, in an era when the champions tend to drop off the season after reaching the top. This season, they have done the domestic cup double and they could make it a treble, which really would be remarkable. All this being said, it will only be after Guardiola is gone that these things start to sink in, because it is really not normal. Levi Colwill was the Chelsea player on the scene in the 72nd minute that decided this FA Cup final, and he did nothing wrong. The moment Erling Haaland lifted his foot back to drill a low ball across the penalty area from the right flank, the Cobham graduate positioned himself perfectly to block off Antoine Semenyo’s view of the Chelsea goal — the only angle that would have mattered when dealing with 99 per cent of the world’s attackers. But this City side have truly exceptional attacking talent. Haaland hammered the ball at Semenyo’s back foot and he found a brilliant, Nwankwo Kanu-style flick into the far corner. As far as Colwill was concerned, it was a cruel fate for an individual performance that was highly impressive in isolation and utterly astonishing within the context of his last 12 months. On just his second start since recovering from the ACL injury he sustained last August, Colwill was superb in possession at the heart of Chelsea’s three-man central defence, consistently picking the right moments to play safe and pick his way through City’s lines of pressure with sharp, incisive vertical passes. Defensively, he read the game superbly, marshalling a pretty quiet Haaland and foiling City’s plans in the air and on the floor. Just as importantly, His voice was loud and and clear in marshalling a Chelsea back line that has too often appeared quiet and uncommunicative in his absence this season. It was a powerful reminder of just how much Chelsea have missed their best centre-back, and timely audition in front of the watching England manager Thomas Tuchel ahead of this summer’s World Cup. A few weeks ago, Colwill participating in that tournament seemed like a fantasy. Now, in this form, it needs to be a serious discussion topic. We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference. We will bring you this after he has spoken at the post-match press conference. Tuesday, May 19: Tottenham (Home), Premier League, 8.15pm UK, 3.15pm ET Tuesday, May 19: Bournemouth (Away), Premier League, 7.30pm UK, 2.30pm ET Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms