{"id":9711,"date":"2026-05-17T13:47:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T13:47:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9711"},"modified":"2026-05-17T13:47:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T13:47:49","slug":"antoine-semenyos-stunner-fires-city-to-fa-cup-glory-over-chelsea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=9711","title":{"rendered":"Antoine Semenyo\u2019s stunner fires City to FA Cup glory over Chelsea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Manchester City claimed a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup Final at Wembley Stadium on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p>Neither side carved out a meaningful opening until the 27th minute, when Erling Braut Haaland bundled home Matheus Nunes\u2019 low delivery at the back post, only for the goal to be ruled out for offside.<\/p>\n<p>The contrast remained evenly balanced until the 44th minute, when Haaland tested Robert Sanchez, who produced a strong save at his near post to deny the City forward.<\/p>\n<p>In first-half stoppage time, Chelsea appealed for a penalty after Joao Pedro went down under Abdukodir Khusanov\u2019s challenge inside the area, but following a VAR review, the referee, Darren England, waved play on.<\/p>\n<p>Three minutes after the restart, Antoine Semenyo came close to putting City in front when he connected with Nico O\u2019Reilly\u2019s cross at the back post, only to nod narrowly over.<\/p>\n<p>At the other end, Rodri came to City\u2019s rescue with a crucial goal-line clearance to deny Moises Caicedo after Trafford failed to deal with a corner.<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, Chelsea appealed for another penalty after Joao Pedro went down under Khusanov\u2019s challenge while attempting to reach Malo Gusto\u2019s inviting cross, but the referee waved play on again.<\/p>\n<p>In the 72nd minute, Semenyo finally broke the deadlock with a deft finish from Haaland\u2019s low cross.<\/p>\n<p>At the other end, the Blues almost responded straightaway through Enzo Fernandez, who flicked Levi Colwill\u2019s pass towards goal, but his effort sailed over the bar.<\/p>\n<p>In the 78th minute, Chelsea appealed once more for a penalty after Khusanov appeared to lean into Jorrel Hato and knock the defender off balance, but VAR upheld Darren England\u2019s decision to let play continue.<\/p>\n<p>Moments later, the Citizens almost doubled their lead through Nunes, whose deflected effort came back off the foot of the post, before Sanchez palmed away Rayan Cherki\u2019s powerful strike.<\/p>\n<p>On the stroke of full-time, Liam Delap could\u2019ve restored parity for Chelsea after he met Gusto\u2019s cross, but he headed wide.<\/p>\n<p>Manchester City have secured their eighth FA Cup title and a 15th major trophy under Pep Guardiola, while Chelsea\u2019s Wembley woes continue with a seventh successive final defeat.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester City claimed a hard-fought 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup Final at&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}