Manchester City vs Brighton and Hove Albion. The FA Cup Semi-Final.
Wembley StadiumAttendance71,521.
Manchester City maintain quadruple challenge after beating Brighton in FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday.
Sunday 7 April 2019 14:25, UK
Gabriel Jesus kept Manchester City's quadruple dream alive as his early header saw them past Brighton 1-0 at Wembley and into the FA Cup final.
The Brazilian netted the only goal of Saturday's semi-final to keep City on track for an unprecedented trophy haul. Pep Guardiola's side have already won the Carabao Cup this season, and are still in the hunt for the Premier League and Champions League.
It could have got ugly for Brighton - who were chasing a first win in five attempts at Wembley - after falling behind so early on. But Chris Hughton's side were full of fight in their first appearance at this stage of the competition since 1983. They will head back to the south coast feeling plenty of pride in their performance, and can now turn their full attention to survival in the top flight.
City, who will be back in north London on Tuesday night for the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Tottenham, will face Watford or Wolves in the final. Those two sides meet in the second semi-final on Sunday.
It took just four minutes for City to take the lead. A lovely team move afforded Kevin De Bruyne plenty of space on the right to put a perfect cross into the heart of the Brighton box, and Jesus popped up unmarked to head the ball home.
The only other real noteworthy event of the first half, however, was a coming together between Kyle Walker and Alireza Jahanbakhsh, with a flare-up leading to the players going forehead to forehead.
Walker appeared to be the aggressor as he moved his forehead into the face of the Iranian, but a VAR review deemed it only worthy of the yellow card already dished out by referee Anthony Taylor.
Guardiola deemed it too risky to leave Walker on the pitch and replaced him with Danilo for the start of the second half, but it was Brighton who came out for the restart with more intent.
They nearly created a glorious opening from a corner as well after 54 minutes as Shane Duffy won a header and put it back across the six-yard box, but Aymeric Laporte just got a foot in front of Glenn Murray to deny him an open goal.
Brighton continued to press for a way back but City largely controlled the game superbly, with Guardiola throwing on the likes of John Stones and Fernandinho to help see out the result.
When you're chasing unprecedented trophy hauls it will never be straightforward, and City may well be looking back in May on the moment Laporte denied Glenn Murray a certain goal midway through the second half. He has been a supreme presence in the heart of their defence all season.
Pep Guardiola: "It was tough because they defended incredibly well and they were well organised. After that it was tough for many reasons but I'm happy to be in the final and still in all the competitions.
"It is always almost impossible to win the quadruple. To still be surviving at this stage in all competitions is already a miracle, and it's nice to be there."
Chris Hughton: "In my opinion it was a red card. We ask players to be honest and Alireza doesn't mkake a big meal of it, when we certainly would have seen in the past players going down clutching their heads and rolling on the floor.
"[I have looked at it] and there would have been numerous circumstances where that action would have got someone a red card. I think there was sufficient force in the action to warrant that."
Man City are in Champions League action on Tuesday night as they head to Tottenham for the first leg of their quarter-final, before they then head to Crystal Palace on Sunday for a 2.05pm kick-off, live on Sky Sports Premier League.
Brighton have a week off before they host Bournemouth in the Premier League next Saturday at 3pm.
