Arsenal vs Manchester City. The FA Cup Semi-Final.
Wembley Stadium.
Report as Manchester City's dreams of a treble are ended by rejuvenated Gunners
Sunday 19 July 2020 07:09, UK
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s double sent Arsenal to the FA Cup final after they showed the perfect mix of grit and guile to beat Manchester City 2-0.
Fresh from beating Liverpool in the Premier League, Mikel Arteta's side had to defend for large parts of this semi-final but thwarted City and struck twice on the counter-attack through Aubameyang.
The Gunners took the lead (19) when the striker finished a 18-pass move with a beautifully controlled finish at the back post before doubling the advantage (71) when breaking a lopsided City offside trap and nutmegging Ederson.
City could have no complaints with the result as they rarely tested Emiliano Martínez, who was protected by an outstanding defensive performance led by David Luiz and Kieran Tierney.
Arsenal will play the winners of Sunday's second semi-final between Manchester United and Chelsea in the final - set to be played on Saturday August 1.
Arsenal's last victory in this fixture was the FA Cup semi-final meeting in 2017, in between suffering seven straight defeats against Pep Guardiola's side. However, buoyed by a win over the champions on Wednesday, confidence was high.
Shkodran Mustafi put his team in trouble when losing out to Raheem Sterling inside his own box but City couldn't take advantage. Possession was being dominated by City but they did little with it and the best chance of the early stages fell to Arsenal when Aubameyang was played onside as he collected Luiz's delivery but shot straight at Ederson.
Usually City don't allow you miss such chances but Aubameyang made amends moments later when steering the ball home from a tight angle following a brilliant cross from Nicolas Pepe that caught out Kyle Walker.
Kevin De Bruyne summed up City's sloppiness when playing a rare loose ball straight to Alexandre Lacazette but Aubameyang couldn't find a way around Ederson.
Guardiola sent his players out early for the second half and they upped the intensity but could not find the finish as Sterling squandered a glorious chance from 12 yards after some brilliant play from De Bruyne.
Sterling then managed to miss from point-blank range when the ball bounced off the England forward following a De Bruyne corner. The Belgian maestro was now pulling the strings and David Silva was the next man to waste a fine chance, side-footing another De Bruyne cross wide from six yards.
Arsenal were hanging on but they carried a huge threat on the break and sensationally doubled their lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Aubameyang, played onside by Benjamin Mendy, raced onto Tierney's superb ball over the top and sent Arsenal to their 21st FA Cup final.
He's taken his fair share of criticism so it's only right to highlight and bang the drum on this immense individual showing from the Brazilian.
Not only did he win 100 per cent of his aerial duels, he made 11 clearances as City peppered his box but were met by a colossus performance.
His influence was infectious with Tierney alongside him stepping up to match his defensive brilliance and even the inconsistent Mustafi stepped up. If Arsenal can remain playing with this sort of cohesion and doggedness at the back, then the future could be exciting.
Sky Sports pundit Lee Hendrie:
"There's no one I can fault in that Arsenal side. The work rate, the clinical finishes we've seen from Aubameyang, everything. Back to front, they set their stall out and it worked a treat.
"They thoroughly deserved it and I'm pleased for Mikel Arteta, because he's had two games in the space of a week where they've showed they can compete. If they can add to that squad and play like they did, I'm talking about Luiz, Tierney, Mustafi at the back, if they can perform like that week-in, week-out, Arsenal have got a chance.
"When Manchester City come up against pace, I've seen Jamie Vardy at Leicester do it, they seem to really struggle with the space they leave. They play some really fast, flowing football going forward - but we know they can get caught out.
"I had Manchester City down to do the treble, I had a feeling they would. The league situation with Liverpool dominating, I felt they would do it, but there's a big rebuild there for Pep Guardiola."
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta: "We are really happy with what has happened in the last four or five days. To beat probably the best two teams in Europe is the nicest thing to do so credit to the players for what they are doing, their performances and the level of fight they are showing.
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola said: "You can lose football games but the way we lost especially in the first half means we are sad about this. We struggled to be there in the game in the first half. That's why we lost the game. If we played like we did in the second half with aggression and desire to win maybe it would have been different. These players have shown many things but in the first we didn't show it, they were not ready. Our performance against Bournemouth wasn't good and so was this first half. We are struggling to find our normal level. It doesn't take a genius to understand we will have to increase our standards against Real Madrid."
Arsenal finish their Premier League season with fixtures against Aston Villa (a) on Wednesday and Watford (h) on Sunday. Meanwhile, Manchester City face Watford (h) on Tuesday and Norwich (h) on the final day. All four games are live on Sky Sports.
