Manchester City produced a dramatic late fightback to reach their fourth successive FA Cup final with a remarkable 2-1 win over Championship Southampton.<\/p>\n
A slow-burner of a semifinal came alive as Finn Azaz put Saints on course for a shock Wembley win when he curled home a sublime goal with 11 minutes remaining.<\/p>\n
Yet that served only to spark City into action and substitute J\u00e9r\u00e9my Doku quickly equalised with a deflected strike before Nico Gonz\u00e1lez won it with an 87th-minute piledriver.<\/p>\n
For a few minutes Southampton dreamt of emulating their 1976 cup heroes by booking a return to the final on the 50th anniversary of that triumph but it was City’s treble quest that remained alive.<\/p>\n
City won the Carabao Cup on their previous visit to the national stadium last month and they will return in May to play Leeds or Chelsea for another trophy.<\/p>\n
In the meantime they will refocus on Premier League action, hoping to keep the pressure on Arsenal at the top of the table.<\/p>\n
Mindful of their title bid, City made eight changes from the side that won at Burnley in midweek and looked rusty as a result.<\/p>\n
That did not stop them almost making a perfect start as Tijjani Reijnders had a shot pushed onto a post by Daniel Peretz and Phil Foden’s follow-up was hooked off the line, but the flag was raised.<\/p>\n
Southampton were also denied by an offside flag after Leo Scienza broke clear and passed the ball into the net.<\/p>\n
City struggled to break down a disciplined Southampton but further chances came and went as Mateo Kovacic, making his first start of the season, shot wide and Peretz saved with his feet from Omar Marmoush.<\/p>\n
Southampton carried a threat on the break but Nathan Ak\u00e9 made a good recovery tackle to block Tom Fellows. Ross Stewart got a sight of goal but James Trafford saved comfortably.<\/p>\n
It was another frustrating afternoon for the out-of-sorts Foden, summed up when he blasted well over and was taken off just before the hour.<\/p>\n
Kovacic also made way as Pep Guardiola injected some urgency by sending on Savinho and Doku.<\/p>\n
Savinho was quickly into the action and tested Peretz while Marmoush could not convert a dangerous ball from Rayan Cherki.<\/p>\n
City summoned further reinforcements in Erling Haaland and Nico O’Reilly and, in a flurry of chances, Gonz\u00e1lez, Cherki and Reijnders all went close.<\/p>\n
Just when a City goal was beginning to feel inevitable, Azaz stunned them against the run of play.<\/p>\n
Receiving the ball outside the area from a Kuryu Matsuki pass, the Republic of Ireland international spun 180 degrees before curling a shot past Trafford.<\/p>\n
It was undoubtedly a moment to savour but Saints hopes were quickly killed off as City replied instantly.<\/p>\n
Doku did the damage as he worked his way across the edge of the area before unleashing a shot that deflected in off James Bree.<\/p>\n
Within moments City were celebrating again as Southampton were again pegged back and Gonz\u00e1lez rifled a ferocious shot into the top corner.<\/p>\n
City almost snatched another as Saints pushed up late on but Savinho’s effort was cleared off the line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester City produced a dramatic late fightback to reach their fourth successive FA Cup final with a remarkable…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,235505,561,235506,82],"class_list":["post-628475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-manchester-city-sports-soccer-team-team-statscom-6158","tag-soccer","tag-southampton-sports-soccer-team-team-statscom-7128","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}