Manchester City fans didn’t used to get to do this quite so often.
Another trip to Wembley Stadium this weekend, this time to face Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final, will be City’s 29th cup game under the famous arch since 2011, a rate of almost two per season. It will also be their 11th cup final in that time (not including the Community Shield — which City have contested nine times of over those 14 years) following three decades without managing to reach a single one.
Astonishing success in both domestic cups in their nine seasons under Pep Guardiola has been the catalyst for this unprecedented run, the reverence with which the Spaniard regards the English knockout competitions fuelling a determination to keep on winning them. City extended their own record when they qualified for a seventh successive FA Cup semi-final with a win over Bournemouth in March, after four consecutive Carabao Cup final victories between 2018 and 2021.
These exciting days out at the home of English football might be more frequent now for City — expected, almost — but the chance to see your club claim silverware at one of world sport’s most storied venues never loses its charm.
The Athletic’s Thom Harris — someone lucky enough to have been in the stands for most of them — recounts City’s best days at the new Wembley, for better or for worse.
11th: FA Cup (2013): City 0-1 Wigan Athletic
Let’s get it out of the way, shall we?
After the thrill of a first Premier League title in 2011-12, Roberto Mancini’s fourth and final season managing Manchester City fell flat, as an uninspiring group of summer additions — including Jack Rodwell, Scott Sinclair and a 31-year-old Maicon — failed to build on the previous year’s success.
City went winless in their six Champions League group games, were knocked out of the League Cup in September by Aston Villa and failed to retain their league title, allowing neighbours and bitter rivals United to claim their record-breaking 20th domestic championship with four games left to spare.
An FA Cup final against relegation-threatened Wigan was a chance for redemption, but only served to compound the misery and send City crashing back down to earth.
City were alarmingly loose in possession as they tried to break down their organised opponents, whose confidence grew with every repelled attack. Carlos Tevez had an excellent chance just before the half-hour mark, denied by the feet of a flying Joel Robles, but it was Wigan who looked the most threatening on the break.
Pablo Zabaleta was lucky not to give away a penalty moments later as he hacked down Roger Espinoza in the box, but he wasn’t so fortunate late in the second half — shown a second yellow card for a wild lunge on Callum McManaman, whose pace had been too much for City’s backtracking defenders to deal with all afternoon.
Ben Watson then flicked home the stoppage-time winner from a corner — a calamitous end to a disappointing season for City and undoubtedly their gloomiest modern Wembley day to date.
Watson delivers a shock end to a bad day for City (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
10th: FA Cup (2024): City 1-2 Manchester United
This was the final that couldn’t go wrong; City went into it having won seven games on the bounce, 21 goals scored, just two conceded, to secure a fourth straight Premier League title, while their opponents were in total disarray. But as has often been the case with United in these modern derby games, logic doesn’t always apply.
It didn’t take long for frustration to set in for City, seemingly taken aback by United’s aggressive 4-2-4 defensive approach. They struggled to move the ball around an energetic front four spearheaded by Bruno Fernandes and Scott McTominay, with Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden nullified by colossal man-marking performances from Sofyan Amrabat and Kobbie Mainoo closer to goal.
United hit hard when they broke forward, profiting from a disastrous moment of miscommunication between Josko Gvardiol and goalkeeper Stefan Ortega to go ahead, before doubling their advantage after a fine, sweeping move. Jeremy Doku pulled one back late on, but it was one of those games that just never felt as if it was going to turn City’s way.
The silver lining for City fans was that it encouraged United to stick with manager Erik ten Hag, a muddle that now has them 16th in the 20-team Premier League table. But, if we’re being honest, it was a quiet drive back home.
City contemplate losing to their local rivals at Wembley (Alex Pantling/Getty Images )
9th: League Cup (2021): City 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
On to better days, and while City clinched their fourth consecutive League Cup on a breezy April afternoon, this was a strange occasion all round.
With just over 7,000 spectators present in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic, 90,000-capacity Wembley was eerily empty as City flew out of the blocks, seeing a close-range Raheem Sterling snapshot blocked on the line, before Foden rattled the post via Toby Alderweireld’s outstretched leg.
Viewers at home, meanwhile, were entertained by a cruel graphic comparing the respective careers of both managers that afternoon. It was a close one, but Guardiola came out on top in the standings, with 517 career wins in the dugout compared to stand-in Tottenham boss Ryan Mason, following the sacking of Jose Mourinho, who had one.
Rewatching this game wasn’t exactly a trip down memory lane, although it was a pleasant reminder of just how good Riyad Mahrez could be. Aymeric Laporte was fortunate not to be sent off for two cynical fouls before he popped up with the winner late on, rising high from a corner and planting an emphatic header into the corner.
Yes, a trophy is a trophy, but this one lacked the associated community and joy from the stands.
The 2021 Carabao Cup final was played amid Covid-19 restrictions (Carl Recine/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
8th: League Cup (2020): City 2-1 Aston Villa
A rare final in that City weren’t sporting their home colours, instead donning a black, yellow, pink and blue kit inspired by Manchester’s iconic Hacienda nightclub.
As a match, it was all about two players: a rising academy talent in Foden and a rapidly improving Rodri, who nicked the first of his many crucial winning goals for the club. They linked up to make the opening goal, as the latter found the former with a familiar floated pass to the back post. Foden nodded a header back into the path of Aguero, who had scored a hat-trick against Villa a couple of months earlier wearing this same kit.
He was never going to miss.
Patience pays off for #MCFC!
Phil Foden nods it down to Sergio Aguero who breaks the deadlock inside 20 minutes with Man City’s first chance! 🔓
Watch #AVFC v #MCFC in the #CarabaoCupFinal live on Sky Sports Football and follow it here: https://t.co/mORPrF0iHX pic.twitter.com/Br917kb8Nu
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) March 1, 2020
There was controversy surrounding the second, as Rodri’s header came from a corner that should not have been given. Ilkay Gundogan’s cross bounced back up against him after a close-range deflection. That two-goal cushion came in handy, too, as Villa halved the deficit with a bullet header from Mbwana Samatta, before being denied by a spectacular Claudio Bravo save as the final whistle approached.
Not vintage City by any stretch, but two sensational individual performances from players who continue to define the Guardiola era more than five years on.
Foden and Aguero celebrate against Villa in 2020 (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
7th: League Cup (2019): City 0-0 Chelsea (City win 4-3 on penalties)
No goals, but this was a hard-fought, entertaining game, as City struggled to cope with Eden Hazard at his elusive best.
Shortly after a bleached-blonde Aguero saw a goal disallowed for offside, the Belgian breezed past compatriot Vincent Kompany — one of eight successful take-ons for him that day — before pulling a ball back to N’Golo Kante for Chelsea’s biggest chance of the day.
That said, there is one enduring image from this game: Chelsea manager Maurizio Sarri, furious, storming down the tunnel in disgust after his goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga, refused to be substituted.
City won the 2019 League Cup final but Kepa was the main protagonist of the day (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
That bonkers incident set the tone for a frenzied finish to extra time as night descended, Cesar Azpilicueta inadvertently saving a certain goal from Aguero with his standing leg, before penalties were signalled, kicking towards the Chelsea end.
Jorginho was yet to miss a penalty on English soil, so Ederson’s save to deny the Italian from the opening spot-kick felt like a big moment. A poor Aguero effort then squirmed through Kepa, who made up for it with a strong save to keep out Leroy Sane, but when David Luiz then struck the post to keep it at 2-2, it led to Sterling having the opportunity to seal the win with City’s fifth attempt.
He confidently dispatched his penalty, via the underside of the bar, and City secured the first of three domestic trophies that year.
6th: League Cup (2018): City 3-0 Arsenal
Time to rewind to the early years of Guardiola’s tenure, and the first of the 18 trophies he has guided the club to.
Something special was brewing. City were 13 points clear at the top of the Premier League as they walked out at Wembley for this February final, having won 18 league games in a row from August to December. They would go on to shatter the points record, finishing with 100, as well as scoring the most goals (106), registering the best goal difference (+79) and winning the title by the most points (19).
Confidence, then, was understandably high against a stuttering Arsenal, with Aguero’s lob over a stranded David Ospina after just 20 minutes — his 199th City goal — settling any early doubts. From there, it was a footballing clinic, the elusive combination play of De Bruyne and prime, clean-shaven David Silva too much for Arsenal to handle, with the pace and trickery of Sane tying Calum Chambers and Nacho Monreal in knots.
There was a classic Bravo jump-scare to keep everyone on their toes early in the second half, almost taking out Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with an air-kick to the face.
But City’s second just before the hour practically sealed the game, as Kompany diverted a low Gundogan drive into the corner. The captain’s wild celebrations, in the context of another injury-hit season towards the end of his playing career, was something all City fans enjoyed.
Silva capped the day with a fine turn and finish to complete one of the club’s most dominant final displays — of any era.
5th: League Cup (2016): City 1-1 Liverpool (City win 3-1 on penalties)
Some might look back on this final as the prelude to a great rivalry as the two clubs duked it out for a string of league titles, but this was all about Willy Caballero, and one of the greatest penalty shootout performances of recent times.
It was a pulsating contest, Liverpool’s new hard-hitting, transitional style under Jurgen Klopp, appointed four months earlier, seeing the game swing from end-to-end, but it was City with the better chances, hitting a post early on through Aguero, before Fernandinho gave them a 49th-minute lead from an unlikely angle.
In truth, it never should have gone to penalties, as Sterling missed a glorious chance in his second game for City against his previous club. A rampant Aguero had a strong penalty appeal waved away too, tripped by a clumsy trailing leg left behind by Alberto Moreno.
But Liverpool held on and hit back late, as Philippe Coutinho took the game to a hectic, but goalless, extra-time period, where there were gilt-edged chances and stunning reflex saves at both ends.
The spot-kicks started terribly for City, as Emre Can calmly scooped the ball down the middle before Fernandinho smashed his penalty against a the post, but the tide quickly turned as Caballero made a flying save to deny Lucas Leiva, before reading Coutinho and comfortably pushing the Brazilian’s shot away down to the same side.
The pick of the bunch, however, was his third consecutive save, a miraculous, one-handed stop to deny a powerful Adam Lallana strike, giving Yaya Toure the chance to win it. Caballero looked on the verge of tears as the Ivorian whipped the ball into the corner, a heroic performance from a back-up goalkeeper who’d played in every previous round to repay manager Manuel Pellegrini’s faith.
4th: League Cup (2014) City 3-1 Sunderland
From the last of Pellegrini’s three trophies as City manager to his first, and a personal favourite because of two minutes of bedlam in the stands.
City started strongly, but fell behind after Kompany misjudged the bounce of a long ball, allowing Fabio Borini to finish confidently with the outside of his boot. The Belgian quickly made up for it with a huge slide-tackle to deny Borini again, with the Italian causing plenty of problems with his relentless running in-behind.
But then, from nothing, that goal.
Arguably the finest one of Yaya Toure’s glittering career, he casually sends a looping, spinning shot into the far corner from all of 30 yards to spark City into life.
“IT’S AN ASTONISHING EQUALISER!”
🗓️ #OnThisDay in 2014, @YayaToure did this in the League Cup Final!#EFL pic.twitter.com/NOU3MmqiAb
— EFL (@EFL) March 2, 2020
The delirium had barely died down by the time Samir Nasri was stepping onto a wicked Aleksandar Kolarov cross — it was just short of 100 seconds later — bending a shot around defender Marcos Alonso for a spectacular first-time finish.
Genuine quality, and the sheer shock factor of watching both goals fly in to turn the game on its head in moments, make this one of the great City celebrations.
Jesus Navas rounded off the victory at the end with a near-post finish on the counter, and the Pellegrini era had lift off.
Pellegrini lifts his first piece of silverware as City manager (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
3rd: FA Cup (2019) City 6-0 Watford
It’s unclear what Guardiola has against Watford, but with 12 wins from 12 meetings, including a 4-0, a 5-1, a 5-0, another 6-0 and an 8-0, this one felt inevitable as soon as David Silva grabbed the first on 26 minutes.
To Watford’s credit, they had the first big chance of the game, where Roberto Pereyra was smothered by a brave Ederson save, but the ease with which City sliced through Javi Gracia’s side after that opener, inspired by an electric combination between Sterling and Gabriel Jesus, was a thrill to behold from the winning side’s point of view.
Three of the goals were put into empty nets, the best when De Bruyne deceived Heurelho Gomes and Kiko Femenia with a series of dummies on the goal line, while the finishing touches, a late pair scored by Sterling, came as Guardiola’s side pulled Watford up the pitch before playing through a beleaguered midfield and flooding into the box.
John Stones almost added a seventh late on, as greed gave way to disbelief in the stands, but this was City at their sweeping best, swarming through time and time again with flowing football fit to crown another exceptional Guardiola season.
Back-to-back league titles and League Cups, plus the FA Cup — the first team to win all three in the same campaign.
Man of the match Kevin De Bruyne only came on in the 55th minute of the 2019 FA Cup final (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
2nd: FA Cup (2023) City 2-1 Manchester United
Hands up if you missed it.
Thirteen seconds is all it took for Gundogan to volley the ball past David de Gea in the first ever Manchester-derby cup final, a goal so startling, sublime, and quite frankly hilarious that those inside the stadium who saw it won’t ever forget it.
The United fans behind the goal at that end, wearing club-supplied bucket hats in their thousands, silenced in mere moments. It’s a memory that makes the many ups and downs that come with a bitter rivalry suddenly seem worth it.
INCREDIBLE 🤯🤯
Ilkay Gundogan gives Man City the lead after 13 seconds!!#FACupFinal pic.twitter.com/mIfaj2hSGO
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) June 3, 2023
Things might have been even better — half the crowd thought it was 2-0 minutes later as Rodri found the side-netting with a fantastic header — while De Bruyne and Erling Haaland were dangerous in a slick opening half-hour from City. United, though, found their way back into the game with a Bruno Fernandes penalty, and might even have gone into the break with a lead had Raphael Varane not skewed a snapshot volley wide.
Gundogan’s second strike was nowhere near as clean as the first, but as his shot found its way into the bottom corner five minutes into the second half, disbelief was restored. There can’t be many players to have decided a cup final with two volleys from outside the box, one with their right foot and another with the left.
Things got a bit uncomfortable after Gundogan had what would have been his hat-trick goal chalked off for offside, as a last-minute melee saw the ball hit the top of Ederson’s crossbar.
But beating United in a cup final, just seven days before finally clinching the Champions League and so completing a historic treble? City summers don’t get much better than that.
Marcus Rashford contemplates City’s progress to a historic treble (Clive Rose/Getty Images)
1st: FA Cup (2011) City 1-0 Stoke City
The day it all began.
A month after City made their first trip to the new Wembley, as Yaya Toure slipped the ball through Edwin van der Sar’s legs for an unforgettable Manchester derby win in the semi-finals, they returned with a trophy in sight, looking to end a 35-year drought.
Mancini’s side laid siege to the Stoke penalty box from kick-off. Ryan Shawcross almost sliced one of Kolarov’s trademark driven crosses into his own net, before Yaya Toure grazed the outside of the post with a spectacular effort from range. Nobody could keep tabs on the battering ram that was Toure (whose brother Kolo was also with City at the time), as he later drove into the box to set up Mario Balotelli, though the Italian was denied by a fingertip Thomas Sorensen save.
Chances arrived at both ends before the decisive moment, David Silva bouncing a close-range volley over the bar before the break, while Kenwyne Jones toe-poked a shot into a sprawling Joe Hart — Stoke’s only on-target attempt of the game.
City’s fans and players celebrate Toure’s goal (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
But it had to be Yaya Toure, heroic in that semi-final, unstoppable once more in the final, to score emphatically past Sorensen.
A watershed moment from a unique, momentous player, and for many, the best day in City’s history — bar maybe one or two still to come.
(Top photo: Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)