Manchester City reached the FA Cup Final for the first time in 30 years with victory over derby rivals Manchester United at Wembley.
Yaya Toure demonstrated power and poise to take advantage of Michael Carrick's mistake to score after 52 minutes and set up another Wembley date against either Bolton Wanderers or Stoke City in May.
United controlled the first half-hour and Dimitar Berbatov - in for the suspended Wayne Rooney - missed two golden chances in the space of seconds early on.
And United, who had Paul Scholes sent off late on for a wild challenge on Pablo Zabaleta, paid the price as City finally gathered momentum to end as deserved winners and sabotage Sir Alex Ferguson's hopes of repeating the historic treble-winning season of 1999.
City threatened through Mario Balotelli, Joleon Lescott and Vincent Kompany before Toure made the breakthrough, with United's only serious second-half response a deflected free-kick from Nani that keeper Joe Hart touched on to the bar.
It was a remarkable turnaround in fortunes and form for City and boss Roberto Mancini, who responded to an abject showing in the 3-0 defeat at Liverpool on Monday by insisting they would reach the FA Cup final and also next season's Champions League.
He fulfilled the first part of his bold promise in style and now City and Mancini can focus their attentions fully on finishing ahead of Tottenham in the fight for a place in the Premier League's top four.
Balotelli was involved in an angry flare-up with Rio Ferdinand and Anderson at the final whistle after jubilantly brandishing his badge in the direction of United's fans, but nothing could take the edge off the wild celebrations from the City supporters who have waited so long to step out of the shadow of their illustrious neighbours.
Both sides were robbed of their most influential players, but ultimately City coped with the loss of injured Carlos Tevez better than United handled the gap left by Rooney - they now have a month to relish their return to the great showpiece after a lengthy absence following their loss to Tottenham in a replay in 1981.
In Rooney's absence, Ferguson turned to Berbatov and the Bulgarian twice squandered opportunities to transform United's early domination into an advantage.
26 сен 2024
