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 Ezes 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 Glasners 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 games 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 OReilly (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 s