Semenyo stuns Chelsea as Manchester City win FA Cup final

Antoine Semenyo turned Wembley into the scene of another FA Cup fairytale, flicking in the decisive goal in the 72nd minute as Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 to win the competition for the eighth time.

At Wembley Stadium connected by EE, Erling Haaland’s cross found Semenyo at the near post, and the 26-year-old supplied the finish that settled a final played at 3pm BST. The goal was enough to earn Semenyo player of the match honours and complete Manchester City’s domestic cup double after their League Cup triumph in March.

For Chelsea, the defeat carried an unwelcome pattern. It was a fourth FA Cup final loss since the club last lifted the trophy in 2018, underlining how quickly the competition can turn on a single moment. Manchester City, by contrast, kept extending their grip on knockout football under Pep Guardiola, with another final decided by precision in the box rather than prolonged control.

The detail that made Semenyo’s winner feel bigger than a routine title-clincher was the route he took to get there. He joined Manchester City from Bournemouth in January 2026 for £65 million, a club-record sale for Bournemouth, after a rise that moved through the less glamorous levels of the English game. Premier League coverage has traced that climb through loans at Newport County in League Two and Sunderland in League One after his breakthrough at Bristol City, with Semenyo described as a player who had been rejected as a teenager before rebuilding himself from the lower reaches of the pyramid.

That background gave the goal added force. Semenyo said the moment felt “surreal” and added that he could get used to winning trophies, a line that fits a player whose career has been defined by patience, detours and late reward. In an increasingly stratified sport, the FA Cup still found room for a striker whose path ran through Newport, Sunderland and Bristol before ending in Manchester with the match-winner at Wembley.