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ESPN FC

Manchester City: FA Cup Champions

ESPN FC

ESPN

Soccer, Sports

4.32.7K Ratings

🗓️ 16 May 2026

⏱️ 49 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The FC Crew react to Manchester City defeating Chelsea in the FA Cup final and what the win means for Manchester City and what the loss means for Chelsea, also breaking down the defensive playstyle from Chelsea in the first half. Then, Xabi Alonso has reportedly agreed a contract with Chelsea to take over as their next manager. Also, a recap of the matchday in Bundesliga as Bayern celebrate and the relegation battle continues. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:21.8

.court.uk slash podcast to learn more. Welcome into the latest edition of ESPNFC.

0:30.7

I'm Dan Thomas. Jermaine Beckford is here as is Nader Menuit. We are at Wembley. You may have noticed

0:35.3

Manchester City clinching the FA Cup final, defeating Chelsea by one goal

0:40.0

to nil.

0:41.0

Not the best game when it came to quality, but it was one little moment of magic that handed

0:45.3

City the title, fantastic individual goal from Semenyo, would see them get over the line

0:50.4

and defeat Chelsea.

0:57.0

Why was it so poor? I think in my opinion, Chelsea's approach was one which was basically built around a side who struggled to find wins and confidence in recent weeks.

1:04.0

So they found something against Liverpool playing in that style.

1:07.0

I think Colewell being back, Rich James being back in there as well.

1:09.0

He saw a more robust side to them. But I think with mostly attacking coming from Gusto on one side and Coquereo on the other, their defenders, you know, they might be able to contribute in attack sometimes, but their defenders, so their attack wasn't really there. And I think from a city standpoint, at times I think Mahmuch and Harlan didn't work well together as in two. And as the game wore on, Roger was getting more tired.

1:28.3

They were losing that influence in that midfield section. And it was, it was boring. That's essentially what it was. Because every time Docu got the ball, for example, somebody who we want to see on the ball, is a 2V1 against him. It's going to be very difficult for him to go past two players and so on. so on. So Chelsea tried to make it for harder cities they called that's the first thing.

1:46.3

And they did do that. So when that ends up being the case, you get a game like that. Jermaine is a striker. Talk us through the Semenio goal. Oh, what a finish. So he didn't have his best game today. No, not many two players did. Exactly, and I think that's something that we need to address.

2:02.6

But at the same time, he was part of the buildup.

2:06.6

The one thing he does really, really well, he doesn't set the ball off and watch and admire his pass and admire what's going on in front of him, the attacking play.

2:14.6

He finds himself going into the danger areas, into the 18-yard box, closing down, closing into the six-yard box, close to where the goalkeeper is. Lovely little ball across the pitch from Harland. But that finish, the little back-heel finish is so, so difficult to do. Nine times out of 10, you will miss the target. Every now and then you'll miss the ball completely. But to do it from that angle, oh my gosh, the goalkeeper has absolutely no chance of getting there because he doesn't expect it. I'm offended you didn't ask me about that finish. Yeah, so there. We go back to about the Sanford Bridge. Yeah, sometime in 20 or whatever. But I think in fairness from Chelsea from this perspective, Colwell is on Semeno. So when Semeno does that, there are certain times in football where you hold your hand up and say, well, there's not much I could have done there. That's great forward play. That's a fantastic finish. And something where nine times out ten that probably doesn't go in, but today it certainly did. And of course, you kind of felt as this game was going on, it was going to take a big mistake or something special to separate these two sides. Yeah. I don't know if you'd agree, but defensively, the teams weren't making that many mistakes. A lot of mistakes were happening in the attack. So maybe what's going to be that quality? Would you agree? 100%. 100%. I don't feel like Chelsea put City under enough pressure for them to make a mistake in the first place.

3:26.0

And on the flip side of it, I think the way City were playing, Chelsea had to just sit leave anyway, you know, so they weren't, I mentioned before, they weren't passing the midfield or through the defenders, they weren't getting the defenders facing their own goal.

3:39.0

Everything was being played in front of them and it was neat and tidy, don't get me wrong. It was pleasing on the eye, but as a striker, I want to see goals, I want to see opportunities, I want to see shots, I want to see saves. We didn't see enough of that today. We saw the emotion and we were Bernardo Silver when he caught himself on the big screen at the top. Obviously this is last piece of silver where in theory that he'll live for Manchester City. What all the history books say about him? For Manchester City is an icon. I think they showed recently that through his tenure at City he's not played in maybe seven games total. That is it. So you can see how important he's been at the times. Maybe he's playing as six, maybe he's playing as an eight, maybe he's high and wide on the side.

4:17.0

He's played left back as well.

4:18.0

One thing for sure is that he's had to be played.

4:20.0

He's probably Pepec Wario's most trusted player throughout that whole time. So legacy wise for him this year, being given the captain's arm band as well, for them to walk up those steps twice, to be able to lift the trophy in that manner,

...

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