Manchester City completed a domestic double title in the 2025-2026 season after a 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the FA Cup final at Wembley, thanks to Antoine Semenyo's genius moment.
In a tense match with not many clear chances, it was the Ghanaian player who made the difference with a classy backheel in the middle of the second half to bring home the 20th title for Guardiola in England.
This could also be Guardiola's last cup with Man City if the Spanish strategist leaves Etihad after this season.
Semenyo creates a decisive moment
The FA Cup final in 2026 is unlikely to be remembered because of its too high professional quality, but Semenyo's goal will certainly be mentioned again in the years to come.
Bernardo Silva opened the ball for Erling Haaland on the right wing before the Norwegian striker crossed into the penalty area. It seemed that the ball had gone too far, Semenyo suddenly unleashed a powerful backheel, sending the ball past Robert Sanchez and into the far corner of Chelsea's goal.
That was almost the only quality play of the match, but enough to decide the cup.
Since joining Man City from Bournemouth in January for £62.5 million, Semenyo is proving his worth. The goal against Chelsea is also his 10th goal for the Etihad home team, but it is definitely the most important goal.
Many people even ranked this goal in the group of the most beautiful goals in the history of FA Cup finals, alongside the masterpieces of Eric Cantona, Roberto Di Matteo or Youri Tielemans.
Guardiola is right again after a controversial decision
One of the biggest surprises before kick-off was that Guardiola let Rayan Cherki sit on the bench. The French star is considered one of Man City's best players in the second half, but Guardiola chose Omar Marmoush to start. That decision was not effective when Marmoush played quite faintly in the first half.
However, Guardiola quickly corrected his mistake after the break. Cherki came on and immediately made Man City significantly more dangerous thanks to his ability to operate between lines. He was the one who started the ball leading to Semenyo's goal. The French player even almost put his name on the scoreboard if he hadn't been excellently saved by Robert Sanchez.
Chelsea misses the opportunity to save the season
With Chelsea, the defeat at Wembley made the already unstable season even heavier. The Blues entered the final with the hope of winning a ticket to the Europa League through the FA Cup championship, but now they are forced to fight in the last two rounds of the Premier League to nurture hopes of participating in European cups next season.
In the context that Man City has won both the Carabao Cup and FA Cup, Europa League and Conference League spots will be allocated according to positions in the Premier League. Chelsea is currently ranked ninth and is forced to beat both Tottenham and Sunderland in the last two rounds, while waiting for the opponents above to stumble.
Despite the defeat, interim coach Calum McFarlane still received many compliments for his tactical organization. Chelsea controlled the midfield and made it difficult for Man City to deploy the ball. Reece James often pushed inside to support Malo Gusto to lock down Jeremy Doku on the left wing.
McFarlane's plan only really collapsed because of Semenyo's moment of brilliance.
Haaland continues to be goalless in finals
One of the most strange statistics continues to follow Haaland. Despite being Man City's goalscoring machine, the Norwegian striker has not yet scored any goals in the finals for the blue team.
The match against Chelsea was the 10th time Haaland played a major final with Man City without scoring. The 25-year-old striker once had a chance to break the jinx in the first half when he escaped after Reece James' mistake, but his shot went wide of the post. Another goal was later disallowed for offside.
However, Haaland still made an important contribution with an assist for Semenyo to score the decisive goal.
Guardiola approaches the perfect ending
After two consecutive defeats in the FA Cup final against Manchester United and Crystal Palace, Man City finally returned to the top at Wembley. This title helped Guardiola complete his domestic double in the 2025-2026 season and continue to affirm his dominant position in English football.
If this is really Guardiola's last season at the Etihad, Wembley may be the place to close another glorious chapter in the Spanish strategist's career.
5 finals in 10 years, 3 wins and 2 losses. I think that's a pretty good record. Chelsea is really strong. Colwill, Reece James or Caicedo are all playing great.
They created a lot of dangerous space with Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer. In the second half they played even better than us, but football is sometimes like that. We found a goal and won" - Guardiola shared.
