Crystal Palace stun Man City as Eze goal wins FA Cup

Eberechi Eze's 16th-minute goal has fired Crystal Palace to the first major trophy in their history on an unforgettable day for the London outsiders as they secured a 1-0 FA Cup victory over favourites Manchester City at Wembley.

Eze put Palace ahead with their first attack of the match on Saturday before an inspired Dean Henderson, the underdogs' goalkeeping hero, saved Omar Marmoush's penalty.

But Henderson, who went on to make a host of fine saves, could count himself fortunate to still be on the pitch after he earlier appeared to deny Erling Haaland a scoring opportunity when he handled the ball outside his area in the game's flashpoint.

Daniel Munoz's strike after the interval for Palace was then chalked off by VAR with Oliver Glasner's side having to subsequently thwart wave after wave of City possession to see out the victory and etch their names into the history books by winning the FA Cup for the first time and sealing a place in the Europa League.

City boss Pep Guardiola was left unhappy by what he felt was time-wasting by Henderson and even confronted the keeper after the final whistle.

"Listen, he defend his position, we defend our position," Guardiola said. "I understand in the last minutes (time wasting), but since the one or two minutes ... he's British. You know in English football you have to play.

"Everyone can do what they want. You have to score goals. We didn't lose because Henderson was time wasting.

"In my teams I never tried (time wasting) because I try to play the game the people deserve to watch."

But he could have no complaints about Palace's win with a sweet goal that will always be cherished by the Selhurst Park faithful.

Jean-Philippe Mateta held up a long punt forward before he turned the ball round the corner to Munoz, and the Colombia international's pinpoint pass was met by Eze, who steered the ball past Stefan Ortega.

The game turned on the Henderson incident as he handled the ball outside of the area to prevent Haaland from meeting Gvardiol's long ball forward.

With only Henderson to beat, was Haaland denied a clear scoring opportunity? Controversially, VAR did not think so - claiming the ball was going away from the goal - and Henderson was in the clear.

City had every right to feel aggrieved, but they were then awarded a chance to wipe out Palace's lead when Tyrick Mitchell's sliding tackle missed the ball and took out Bernado Silva instead. Yet Henderson pulled off a strong one-handed penalty save to deny Marmoush, who had been handed the ball to take the spot kick by Haaland.

"Haaland might have stepped up, I wasn't sure which way to go," said Henderson later. "He gave it to Marmoush and I knew which way he was going. I knew I would save it."

Wild scenes in the Palace end were curtailed after the break when VAR intervened to rule out Munoz's goal with Sarr in an offside position.

Henderson later shrugged off all the controversy as he dedicated his brilliant FA Cup final performance to his late father.

"I lost my dad at the start of the season, but he was with me today. He was with me every kick of the game. I dedicate that win to him," said Henderson.