Crystal Palace Vs Manchester City [1-0] FA Cup Final 2024/2025 – Post-Match Tactical Analysis

After finishing runners-up in 1989/1990 and 2015/2016, Crystal Palace won the 2024/2025 FA Cup.

This is the first major trophy in the South London club’s history, with Palace having previously had just two second-tier titles and a third-tier title in their honours list.

The FA Cup trophy will now take pride of place in their trophy cabinet after they beat Manchester City 1-0 thanks to Eberechi Eze‘s 16th-minute goal.

Needless to say, the Eagles had tough competition to overcome on Saturday.

Their mental, physical, and tactical efforts had to be precise in order for them to have a chance to win against a far stronger Manchester City side.

One man, in particular, that Crystal Palace had to make strong efforts to contain was City captain Kevin De Bruyne, who’d scored a goal and made an assist versus the Eagles in a 5-2 Premier League win for City just over a month earlier.

Our tactical analysis of the 2024/2025 FA Cup Final provides an in-depth examination of Oliver Glasner’s defensive tactics, which featured Kevin De Bruyne and helped keep him and City quiet on Saturday.

2024/2025 FA Cup Final Lineups & Formations

First, let’s briefly examine how Oliver Glasner and Pep Guardiola set up their respective teams for Saturday’s clash at Wembley.

Firstly, Glasner lined Palace up in a 5-2-3 shape with Dean Henderson starting in goal behind a back three of Chris Richards (right centre-back), Maxence Lacroix (middle centre-back) and Marc Guéhi (left centre-back).

Daniel Muñoz (right wing-back) and Tyrick Mitchell (left wing-back) were stationed out wide, with Adam Wharton (right central midfield) and Daichi Kamada (left central midfield) operating in the middle of the park.

Lastly, Palace’s front three consisted of Ismaïla Sarr (right wing), Eberechi Eze (left wing), and Jean-Philippe Mateta (centre-forward).

Glasner made three substitutions over the course of Saturday’s game.

At the hour mark, Palace’s first sub saw Jefferson Lerma come on for an injured Guéhi.

Just over 15 minutes after that, Eddie Nketiah came off the bench for Mateta.

Finally, just before the end of regular time, Will Hughes was introduced in place of Wharton to see out the game’s final minutes.

On the other hand, Pep Guardiola set City up in a 4-2-3-1 shape.

Stefan Ortega was between the sticks, with Manuel Akanji (right-back), Rúben Dias (right centre-back), Joško Gvardiol (left centre-back) and Nico O’Reilly (left-back) playing just ahead of him.

In possession, this backline changed to a back-three, with O’Reilly moving up into midfield and the rest of the backline shifting slightly towards the left.

Kevin De Bruyne (right central midfield) and Bernardo Silva (left central midfield) played in front of that backline, with Silva typically operating a little deeper than De Bruyne in possession.

Omar Marmoush then played as City’s ‘10’ with Savinho (right wing) and Jérémy Doku (left wing) alongside him and Erling Haaland (centre-forward) up front.

Like Palace, City also made three substitutions during the game.

Guardiola’s first change was a double substitution in the 75th minute when Phil Foden and Claudio Echeverri came on for Savinho and Marmoush.

Then, in the 87th minute, İlkay Gündoğan was introduced for Bernardo Silva as Guardiola tried desperately to find the winning formula for a goal.

Crystal Palace Defence Tactics Vs Manchester City

As mentioned, Glasner set his Palace side up in a 5-2-3 defensive shape.

The Eagles primarily defended in a low block on Saturday, meaning they didn’t typically press very aggressively.

They preferred to sit deeper and focus on protecting the space in front of their goal.

Palace’s wing-backs retained access to City’s final-third wide threats while the centre-backs tried to ensure no space opened up for Haaland and Marmoush to exploit centrally.

Wharton and Kamada positioned themselves quite closely to the centre-backs, keeping the space between the midfield and defensive lines extremely compact.

This gave City’s strikers no chance to drop and get themselves into the game that way.

Any ball that was played into a City striker’s feet would immediately be pounced on from all angles—from behind by the near centre-back and from the front by the near midfielder.

Palace’s wingers primarily protected the half-spaces and applied pressure to any player who entered the half-space, blocking passes into that area if the ball were deeper.

At the same time, Mateta occupied City’s most central midfielder—usually Bernardo Silva in this game—preventing him from receiving in space and dictating play from a valuable position.

This, essentially, was the basis for Crystal Palace’s winning game plan versus Manchester City, but let’s go into greater detail on how the Eagles contained Kevin De Bruyne within this setup as we progress to our next section.

Crystal Palace Defence Tactics Vs Man City Midfield

Palace evidently, and perhaps logically, identified De Bruyne as the main threat they had to stop on Saturday.

Generally speaking, they did so very effectively.

By preventing De Bruyne from getting on the ball and impacting the game as much as he would’ve liked, Palace stopped City from creating as much as they would’ve hoped.

This was achieved primarily through their defence tactics to control the centre.

Figure 2 shows a great example of how Palace contained Kevin De Bruyne.

Firstly, the play moves to the opposite wing, where we find the Belgian playmaker.

Nevertheless, the left centre-back, left central midfielder and left-winger all keep fairly close proximity to De Bruyne and scan continuously to ensure he’s not escaping into space.

This demonstrates the level of attention Glasner’s side entered this game, intending to apply to De Bruyne.

Indeed, Eze, as the left winger, had a considerable role to play in marking De Bruyne.

However, the playmaker was not just the responsibility of Eze.

The task of containing De Bruyne was done by several Palace players—especially Eze, Kamada and Guéhi.

All three players essentially had to form a ‘cage’, of sorts, around the City captain, so if he were to receive, it’d be not just one person’s responsibility to deal with him, but a few.

This also gave Palace flexibility in terms of their pressing.

If Eze, for instance, were dragged away from his base position for some reason, a different Palace player would still be there to pick up De Bruyne—he wouldn’t become free just because one player was dragged away from his position—or, at least, he shouldn’t.

That was the idea on paper, but of course, on the pitch, when playing against Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City and players with De Bruyne’s ability, the job is a lot easier on paper than on grass.

In the fifth minute of the game, Eze was drawn into a slightly uncharacteristically aggressive press for Palace in this game, but other players did not support him.

It would appear that Eze recognised a pressing trigger that others did not, leading to his press, which was not backed up by others.

This led to City easily playing around the winger and getting the ball to De Bruyne in some space.

After receiving, the Belgian was able to turn, play an excellent ball into the box, and set up a great goalscoring chance that drew a top save from Dean Henderson.

This passage of play provides a stark reminder of De Bruyne’s ability to create golden opportunities from even the smallest amount of space and why Palace showed him so much respect on Saturday.

Thankfully, for Palace, instances like this, when their defensive tactics didn’t quite come off for one reason or another, including miscommunication or lapses in concentration, were few and far between.

Any time they did occur, Henderson was there on form to save them.

As a result, the cup came to Selhurst Park for the first time in its history.

Shortly after our previous example, Eze pressed Akanji again, departing from his duties with De Bruyne.

However, on this occasion, Palace’s tactics went to plan, and another player, left centre-back Guéhi, duly stepped up to prevent De Bruyne from enjoying any space.

Compare this positive example with Figure 3 to see exactly what went wrong the last time Eze had pressed and how they fixed it on this occasion, as well as most others.

As the game wore on, De Bruyne began moving around more and more to try to influence it.

Above, we see an example of him rotating with Silva, getting on the ball in a more central, holding midfield position.

Though De Bruyne was unable to find a good creative passing option himself in this situation, his rotation with Bernardo Silva did disrupt Palace’s defence.

The defence had been so focused on containing him that City were able to find Silva in the right half-space.

The Portuguese midfielder had enough room around him to play a quick one-two with Marmoush to get into the box, winning a penalty for Manchester City.

Dean Henderson ultimately saved the penalty, but this served as another reminder for Palace how little invitation City needed to create goalscoring chances and that their concentration had to constantly be at 100% if they were to pull off their victory.

As the game wore on, Palace remained disciplined and focused.

They successfully kept their central areas secure enough to prevent City from scoring.

While City did still manage to create one or two great chances, that’s because they’re a great team with top-class players who are capable of creating something out of nothing.

In the end, a bit of luck and individual brilliance from goalkeeper Dean Henderson proved highly influential for Palace.

Still, take nothing away from their defensive efforts to contain De Bruyne and control that half-space he mainly occupied, as this was the key to limiting City as much as they did so that they didn’t have to dip into the well of Henderson’s heroics one too many times.

Crystal Palace Defence Tactics Vs Man City On The Wings

It wasn’t just the centre that Palace had to defend.

City also threatened via the wings, and Palace had to be prepared to deal with those threats, too.

Here, we see Doku attacking down the left wing with Nico O’Reilly in support.

Palace didn’t show nearly as much respect to O’Reilly, who usually occupied the left half-space, as they did with De Bruyne on the right.

Ultimately, they didn’t have to.

With Doku starting to get past Palace’s right wing-back Muñoz here, right centre-back Richards shifted across, leaving O’Reilly in some space to deal with the threat of Doku, which he does.

Palace were good at avoiding 1v1 duels out wide versus City.

When Guardiola’s side progressed into the final third via the wing, Palace’s back five was able to shift over, allowing the wide centre-back to provide more support than normal to the wing-back.

City did use the wings intelligently to create chances in this game.

As our following example shows, one way involved De Bruyne drifting out wide.

With De Bruyne having moved out to the right-wing here, Eze remains relatively close in case he has to press the Belgian playmaker should he receive the ball here.

However, once Akanji had carried the ball forward, and Savinho had made an inverted run from the wing, Eze was pulled back to the centre, and this created space for De Bruyne out wide, with left wing-back Mitchell having also been dragged centrally by Savinho’s run, creating a crossing opportunity for City.

Here, Akanji has pushed forward yet again.

This time, Savinho plays a one-two with the right centre-back, getting City in behind Palace’s backline and into a decent crossing position.

City had to be very aggressive to exploit space on the wings, with Akanji playing a vital role in an advanced position when they did create via the right wing in the second half.

Still, the crossing opportunities went nowhere as City didn’t have the bodies in the box versus Palace’s strong backline to really make the most of the chances.

Conclusion

To conclude this FA Cup analysis, Oliver Glasner and his Crystal Palace side prepared very well for this game and earned the reward they got at the end.

Things could’ve been very different had, for instance, City’s penalty been converted rather than saved or had City managed to score from the early chance De Bruyne created.

However, you always need a bit of luck in football.

Palace controlled what was in their control very well, especially in terms of their half-space defence and ability to prevent 1v1s on the wings in the final third.

This defensive preparation and execution gave Palace a chance to benefit from small moments of individual brilliance and fortune on Saturday.

So, in essence, they created their own luck by limiting City’s attacking excellence to the absolute minimum.