SILVA SERVICE
Man City 1 Chelsea 0: Bernardo Silva goes from Champions League villain to FA Cup hero as he makes up for penalty miss
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ZERO-TO-HERO Bernardo Silva roared “make mine a Double instead” with a late winner for jaded Manchester City.
Silva’s embarrassing penalty had set City on the road to the agonising Champions League defeat on spot-kicks by Real Madrid that ended their dreams of back-to-back Trebles.
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But the Portugal international put himself on the road to redemption by delivering the decisive moment for Pep Guardiola’s ragged-looking team.
Despite looking physically and emotionally drained by their midweek exertions, City found a way to win and may well lift the Premier League trophy again before being back here next month for the final.
Chelsea suffered yet more Wembley agony after losing the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool in February in the dying minutes of extra-time.
That makes it ten defeats in their last 13 since the reopening of the national stadium.
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But Mauricio Pochettino’s team only had themselves to blame after being the better side for most of the game.
The dark Blues should have been home and hosed before the hour.
But striker Nicolas Jackson was guilty of failing to convert at least four really good chances.
The Senegal striker was lively throughout only for his finishing to let him down again.
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In the first half, he was played through by Enzo Fernandez and went around City goalkeeper Stefan Ortega, only to decide not to shoot with his left and then fail to find a team-mate with a pass with his right.
After the break, he found himself one-on-one with Ortega again.
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He forced a decent save but moments later, when found by a Cole Palmer cross, he sent a close-range header straight at the City goalkeeper.
Jackson was by far the most culpable, but Chelsea wasted other chances, too.
As for City, Phil Foden had their best opportunities before Silva’s late heroics.
In the first half, he ran on to Kevin De Bruyne’s brilliant pass and past Chelsea goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic but was unable to put a shot on target with his weaker right foot from a tight angle.
In the second half, he should probably have done better with his favoured left peg, rather than give Petrovic the opportunity to make a decent enough stop.
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Guardiola sent on Jeremy Doku in search of inspiration and the Belgian was denied by Petrovic’s right leg.
With time running out, Doku played his part in the winner.
He found De Bruyne whose attempted cutback from the byline was palmed away by Petrovic.
But the ball only went to Silva.
After hitting that penalty straight into the grateful arms of Real Madrid goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, he saw his shot deflected into the back of the net off Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella.
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Pochettino's side were given eight minutes of stoppage time to find an equaliser.
But Jackson and co could have played all night and not scored.
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