Izuchukwu OkosiCrystal Palace will play in the Europa League competition for the 2025/2026 season as Eberechi Eze’s stunning goal shocked Manchester City on Saturday evening to win the FA Cup.
Erling Haaland’s attempted acrobatic finish within the first ten minutes to set the tone for an exhilarating game.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelCity were presented with some glitch-edge chances soon afterwards.
However it was Palace, playing in their third FA Cup final in history who grabbed the decisive goal with Anglo-Nigerian midfield star Eberechi Eze shrugging off the challenge of another player of Nigerian descent, Manuel Akanji to put the Palace ahead.
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Ismaila Sarr was at the end of a good cross but his flicked effort was saved by City keeper Stefan Ortega.
Eze thus becomes the first player to score in five consecutive appearances for Crystal Palace since Darren Ambrose netted in six in a row in November 2009.
Palace goalkeeper, Dean Henderson, made several critical saves including an Omar Marmouch penalty in the first half.
Jeremy Doku another bright spot going forward for Pep Guardiola’s side but met resistance from the England international keeper.
Palace had a goal ruled out for offside in the second half when Munoz was deemed to be in an offside position after a review from the VAR.
READ ALSO: Crystal Palace Beat Man United 2-0
There was 10 minutes of added time after regulation time and Kevin de Bruyne went close to restoring parity when he let fly a rasping shot from distance that saw the ball went agonisingly wide.
The west London side defended stoutly to see off the contest. Henderson was adjudged the Man of the Match in the game.
The triumph continues the rather bizarre adventure of clubs in the Premier League who are struggling in the lower rungs of the table but performing brilliantly in UEFA competitions.
Chelsea will face Real Betis in the final of the Conference League, while Manchester United will play against Tottenham Hotspur in the final of this season’s UEFA Europa League.
Izuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
