FA Cup semi-finals recap

The FA Cup final is set and will be played between Manchester City and Watford. Watford against Wolves was a very exciting match and Watford produced one of the greatest semi-final comebacks in the FA Cup. Wolves started the game brightly and were up in the 36th minute when they took a short corner then crossed to ball into Doherty who got ahead of his marker to score. Doherty went from scorer to provider in the second half when he assisted Jimenez for the second goal. The match seemed to be over as Wolves were sitting back and defending well and it did not look like Watford could break them down.

However, Deulofeu came on in the 66th minute, then 13 minutes later scored a sublime goal to give Watford a little bit of hope that they could get back into it. Wolves looked shocked after the goal went in, however, Watford could not really capitalize on the situation. It took them until the fourth minute of added time for Doucoure to send in a low cross for Deeney who got ahead of Dendoncker but was brought down by the Wolves defender in the area. The penalty was given but Micheal Oliver had to check with VAR just to make sure, which was confirmed. Deeney stepped up and slotted away the penalty to take the game to extra time. Then in the 104th minute of the match after some good play from Watford gave the ball to Deulofeu who used his pace to get past the last defender and slot the ball home past Rudy for the second time. That ended the game and sent Watford through to their first final since 1984.

Manchester City against Brighton was the complete opposite. The match was played at Wembley which wasn’t full and really lacked atmosphere. Manchester City got the goal in the fourth minute after a beautiful cross from De Bruyne to show us the quality he was demonstrating all of last season, but has been missing this season, was met by Jesus to head it past Ryan. It seemed that the floodgates would be opened, however, Brighton defended well even though City didn’t have their usual cutting edge. It could be the first signs that the squad is getting fatigued. On the other hand, it is a great achievement for them, as they are in their second final of the season and still on course for a quadruple.