Manchester City have reached their first major cup final since 1981 thanks to Yaya Touré, whose second-half goal was enough to beat ten-man Manchester United at Wembley.
Neither side were able to impose themselves on the game in the opening stages before United took charge of the contest with Paul Scholes and Carrick pulling the strings in midfield. So it came as no surprise to see United’s midfield duo combine to create the first real chance of the game for Dimitar Berbatov, who could have given United the lead twice in a minute.
First, after some great one-touch passing between Carrick, Scholes and Park Ji-Sung, Berbatov was freed one-on-one with Joe Hart but Hart was about to block Berba’s shot. Moments later Nani skinned Pablo Zabaleta and rolled the ball across the face of goal, only for Berbatov to scoop the ball over the bar from only a couple of yards away. It was a really bad miss.
Following the miss City started to grow into the game and came close to breaking the deadlock through Mario Balotelli, whose fiercely struck long-range effort was tipped over by Edwin van der Sar.
Roberto Mancini’s men out of the start of the second half by pressing United higher up the pitch and that pressure paid off in the 52nd minute. Rio Ferdinand’s back-pass put Edwin Can der Sar under pressure. His clearance reached Michael Carrick but Carrick’s pass was intercepted by Yaya Toure right outside the United box. Toure powered past Nemanja Vidić before finishing calmly past Van der Sar.
City then focused on what they do best, which is defending a lead. Expect from a Nani free-kick that was superbly tipped onto the bar by Hart, United failed to create any clear goal scoring opportunities.
When Paul Scholes was sent off with less than 10 minutes to go for a high challenge on Zabaleta, you could sense that this was going to be Man City‘s day.
City will now face either Stoke City FC or Bolton Wanderers FC in the final on 14 May, with the second semi-final to be held on Sunday.
