Goals from Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol fired Manchester City into the 2024-25 FA Cup Final, with a 2-0 semi-final win over Nottingham Forest.
Lewis fired City ahead just two minutes into the tie after he met Mateo Kovacic’s pass on the edge of the box, and calmly twisted to rifle low into the bottom-left corner.
Gvardiol wrapped up City’s spot in the showpiece final for a 14th occasion with a clinical unmarked header from Omar Marmoush’s 51st-minute corner.
Man City will now meet Crystal Palace on Saturday 17 May in this season’s FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium, London, after Oliver Glasner’s Eagles comfortably beat Aston Villa in the opening semi-final.
Although both teams are chasing a top-five league finish, this competition represented the sole hope of silverware for both teams this season.
City’s superior experience of 27 cup competition appearances at the modern Wembley though rapidly showed with a strong attacking press from the start with neat passing play in the opening two minutes, which saw the ball ultimately fall to Kovacic who teed up Lewis to calmly turn and rifle low into the bottom-left corner to put City in front.
Forest however proved difficult to break down after Lewis’ early opening goal as City were constantly frustrated thereafter in the rest of the opening half-hour, during which Nico O’Reilly put a 27th-minute shot wide.
Forest soon found their attacking way into the game but Chris Wood was offside when his shot from Callum Hudson-Odoi’s cutback pass was denied in the 36th minute, yet City dug in to protect their lead into half-time.
Nuno Espirito Santo subsequently opted to substitute Danilo for Anthony Elanga at half-time which almost paid off less than a minute into the second half, as the Swede flicked wide from Hudson-Odoi’s low curled cross.
City though refused to let their quality drop and forced Sels into a double save in the 50th minute to deny Lewis then Kovacic.
Sels however couldn’t prevent a second goal a minute later after Gvardiol was left unmarked to thump in a bullet header from the subsequent corner to double City’s lead.
Espirito Santo’s Tricky Trees however continued to grow in confidence despite their two-goal deficit whilst Sels crucially denied Marmoush twice.
Forest however wasted a chance to pull a goal back on a quick 65th-minute attack which culminated in Morgan Gibbs-White curling a shot onto the top-left corner of the crossbar, after Elanga had played an one-two move with Wood towards the left.
Elliott Anderson was the next Forest player to find himself frustrated as he fired wide before Gibbs-White hit the left post in the 70th minute, which underlined Forest’s lack of clinical finishing touches in this semi-final despite their second-half improvement.
Taiwo Awoniyi was the next to find the woodwork in the 80th minute before Gibbs-White’s rebound header was cleared as Forest ultimately couldn’t break City’s gutsy defence down, with their wait for a first FA Cup final since 1991 now extended for another year at least.
What’s Next?
Forest turn their attention back to the Premier League with a home clash against Brentford on 1 May at 7:30pm BST.
Man City will too switch their focus back to league duty just over 24 hours later on 2 May as they host Wolves at the Etihad Stadium in a 8pm kick-off.
Teams
Nottingham Forest: Matz Sels, Zach Abbott (Sosa 83′), Nikola Milenkovic, Murillo, Harry Toffolo, Nicolas Dominguez (Silva 82′), Danilo (Elanga 46′), Callum Hudson-Odoi, Morgan Gibbs-White, Elliot Anderson (Sangare 71′), Chris Wood (Awoniyi 71′)
Substitutes: Miguel Pereira, Morato, Ibrahim Sangare, Taiwo Awoniyi, Alex Moreno, Jota Silva, Anthony Elanga, Ramon Sosa, Willy Boly
Man City: Stefan Ortega, Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Josko Gvardiol, Nico O’Reilly, Mateo Kovacic (Gonzalez 89′), Rico Lewis, Savinho (Foden 81′), Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish (Gundogan 71′), Omar Marmoush (Doku 81′)
Substitutes: Ederson, Jeremy Doku, Nicolas Gonzalez, Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, Vitor Reis, Manuel Akanji, Abdukodir Khusanov, Phil Foden
Referee – Michael Oliver
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