Key events
16 min: The game having started in end-to-end fashion, City attempt to establish some control. But their creativity can’t be reined in forever. Or indeed for more than 60 seconds. Cherki and Kovacic take turns to spin elegantly down the inside-left channel, but neither are able to get the better of Bree. This game won’t end goalless. It can’t. It surely can’t.
14 min: Southampton have shown their intent already. They’re clearly going to take the game to Manchester City. No point dying wondering, and hats off to them for that. “Are these the two English teams with the best club anthems?” wonders Kári Tulinius. “A beloved gospel song on the one hand and a Rodgers and effing Hart on the other hand, North London Forever doesn’t stand a chance, and I say that as an Arsenal fan.”
12 min: Offside drama at both ends. First up, Marmoush breaks clear down the right, only for Wood to extend a leg and block the shot out for a corner. Then the flag goes up. And then, Stewart releases Scienza down the inside-left channel. He’s clear, enters the box, draws Trafford and slots confidently across the keeper and into the bottom right. Bedlam in the Saints end, but the flag goes up correctly for another offside. Good fun this!
10 min: The Saints fans, unperturbed, channel their inner Satchmo again. What support. Determined to enjoy Wembley. And then they nearly get something to seriously sing about, Fellows making good down the right and cutting back for Jander, who goes over Reijnders’ leg on the edge of the box. A muffled shout for a penalty, but nobody’s really serious about the call. The ball deflects out for a City goal kick.
8 min: Reijnders wins a corner off Welington down the right. Nothing comes of the resulting set piece. But this is quite some pressure from City, and Welington has already broken out in a sweat, worried beads dotted across his furrowed brow.
7 min: Amid that stramash, Foden tried to poke into the bottom right, only for Harwood-Bellis to hoick off the line. Fine defending, but of course that Marmoush offside would have ruled any goal out.
5 min: … and City quickly show how dangerous they can be. Marmoush is sprung clear down the right. He cuts back for Reijnders, who lashes a shot off the right-hand upright. In fact Peretz got a touch, and that’s a fine save. Saints somehow hack clear, then the flag goes up for offside, Marmoush having gone too early. It was close, though.
4 min: Should Saints win this, they’d become the first team from outside the Premier League side to make the final since Cardiff City beat Barnsley in 2008. They’d also become the first lower-division team to beat a top-flight side in the semi since Sunderland saw off Norwich City in 1992. It’s a big ask, but Arsenal have receipts.
2 min: Saints finally get a touch, and there’s instant hope. Scienza makes good ground down the left but his cross is no use. Electric run, though. The underdogs with a statement of intent of their own.
1 min: City waste no time in establishing how they plan to go about this. A lot of patient possession. Saints yet to have a touch.
Manchester City get the ball rolling. April. Wembley. Sun. It’s that time of year. What’s not to love?
The teams are out! Manchester City in first-choice sky blue with white sash, Saints in their 1976-inspired yellow and blue. Wembley is bouncing, and Southampton’s fans are winning the pre-match singing exchanges. They’re making a rare old racket with their New Orleans-infused spiritual. Blue Moon barely getting a note in edgeways. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes.
Southampton will wear yellow and blue this afternoon, as they have done in the FA Cup all season, commemorating the 50th anniversary of their victory in the 1976 final. Those were the colours they sported at Wembley as Bobby Stokes scored late on for Lawrie McMenemy’s second-division side, shocking hot favourites Manchester United. The commemorative shirt has the signatures of all the players in the cup-winning team woven into the fabric, and rather cutely, only 1,976 individually numbered replica shirts have been produced.
Jim McCalliog, whose precision lob down the middle sent Stokes through for the 83rd-minute winner, has just told TNT Sports that what remained of the match that day were “the fastest seven minutes … when the referee blew the whistle I didn’t think it was time. We felt very comfortable out there. We were handing the game, controlling the game. I didn’t have a worry.”
Pep’s counterpart Tonda Eckert turns his laser gaze towards TNT Sports. “Focus … we know about the occasion … we have prepared all week and will be ready … [Southampton’s long unbeaten run] gives you confidence going into every game … combined as always with a good sense of humility … we are going to need both today … you need to be brave … they will push us closer to our goal … we know we will need to suffer … when we do have the ball we have to be brave to have some spells on it … we have played some big names in the last weeks … so we will be fully focused … it is a big occasion for our supporters.”
Pep Guardiola talks to TNT Sports. “There is potential, obviously … happy to be back … Wembley is always special … a question of performing … [Southampton are] 19 games unbeaten … when that happens, we have to be alert because something is going on in that team … you don’t make 19 games unbeaten if they don’t have something … we spent time to try to discover how we have to do it … [a place in today’s City starting XI] is not a gift … we need energy … bring energy … rhythm … Pep [Lijnders] brings us something new … Liverpool [with Lijnders and Jurgen Klopp] was incredible … I learn a lot and am a better manager because of him … [John Stones] on and off the pitch is just adorable.”
Manchester City have made eight changes to their starting XI following the Premier League win at Burnley. John Stones returns from injury to captain the side, while Erling Haaland, Bernardo Silva, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marc Guehi, Nico O’Reilly, Antoine Semenyo, Jeremy Doku and Abdukodir Khusanov drop to the bench, rested ahead of the league run-in, but awaiting the call if required.
Southampton make six changes after their eventful Championship draw with Bristol City during the week. Leo Scienza and Ross Stewart, two heroes of the quarter-final win over Arsenal, are among those who return. Taylor Harwood-Bellis captains against his old club, while Flynn Downes is suspended. Shea Charles, who scored the winner against Arsenal, is on the bench.
The teams
Manchester City: Trafford, Nunes, Stones, Ake, Ait-Nouri, Gonzalez, Kovacic, Reijnders, Cherki, Foden, Marmoush.
Subs: Donnarumma, Haaland, Doku, Guéhi, Bernardo, Savinho, O’Reilly, Khusanov, Lewis.
Southampton: Peretz, Bree, Harwood-Bellis, Wood, Wellington, Jander, Bragg, Fellows, Azaz, Scienza, Stewart.
Subs: Long, Quarshie, Jelert, Charles, Matsuki, Robinson, Edozie, Archer, Larin.
… so yes, this is Manchester City’s eighth consecutive season in the FA Cup semi-finals. Their overall hit-rate is pretty good, too: they’ve reached this stage on 20 previous occasions, making it to the final 14 times. But Southampton are pretty prolific as a semi-final concern too: this will be their 14th appearance, and though their success ratio isn’t quite as impressive, they have reached the final four times: 1976 of course, as a Second Division side; 2003 when in the Premier League; and 1900 and 1902 as a Southern League outfit. A pair of semi-final grandees, then, Saints from all the way back to the Victorian era, City relative newcomers as they had to wait for the Edwardian era for their first appearance in 1904. And yes I am killing time until the team news drops.
Preamble
Manchester City have had the bit between their teeth in the FA Cup this season. In the third round, they put ten goals past Exeter City, becoming the first top-flight club to notch double figures in the competition since Bill Nicholson’s famous Tottenham Hotspur side scored 13 times against Crewe in 1960. They’ve since gone to Newcastle and found the net three times, thrashed Liverpool, the reigning champions of England, by four goals, and … well, they only managed two against fourth-tier Salford in the fourth round, but let’s not spoil the effect. They’re UP FOR THE CUP, and what’s more, this will be their eighth consecutive FA Cup semi-final in a period which covers 21 matches against lower-league teams, City winning them all to the cumulative scoreline of 84-11. Eight in a row! 84-11! Southampton could be forgiven for not turning up.
But Southampton will turn up, and with good reason. Saints held City at St Mary’s towards the tail end of last season, having given Pep Guardiola’s men a good game at the Etihad earlier in the campaign. And then there was that Nathan Jones inspired League Cup victory early in 2023. So this is not necessarily a dream match-up for City, never mind a shoo-in, and that’s before one considers the emphasis they’ll surely, understandably, be putting on their pursuit of the Premier League, with Rodri unlikely to be risked this afternoon … and that Pep is not immune to being unceremoniously cashiered from the grand old competition, just ask Wigan. Oh, and there’s also the manner in which Saints majestically swiped aside Arsenal in the quarters: they’re UP FOR THE CUP too, and if Tonda Eckert’s team play like that again, City will have a few problems to solve.
So this is set up deliciously, with both clubs and their fans daring to dream. City have their eye on becoming the first team in history to reach four consecutive FA Cup finals, en route to their third FA Cup lift in eight seasons, and a possible domestic treble. Saints meanwhile want to mark the 50th anniversary of their proudest day with their second FA Cup win, and reaching a first final since 2003 is the necessary next step. Could be a cracker; let’s hope so. Kick-off is at 5.15pm BST. It’s on!
