Mancini's Toure de force
It was billed as the battle of Manchester’s megabucks heavyweights and the less prosperous Potters, but in the end Roberto Mancini’s £300 million spending spree paid off and ended his club’s 35-year wait to land a major trophy. Money doesn’t talk, it swears, according to Bob Dylan, and Stoke had good reason to curse their lack of financial muscle against a team that, in the wake of Sheik Mansour’s takeover, has now produced Champions League qualification and an FA Cup triumph in the space of a week.
And it was somehow fitting that semi-final hero Yaya Toure – reportedly the highest-paid player in the Barclays Premier League on £185,000 a week – was the match-winner again against plucky Stoke, whose 148-year wait for FA Cup glory goes on.
The midfielder, who had said the prospect of an FA Cup final appearance against Stoke was more attractive than a Champions League final tilt, described the moment his 74th-minute goal went in as the sweetest of his career and the first major building block in City’s attempt to buy world domination. He said: “It’s fantastic for the history of the club. We wanted to win something and get through to the Champions League. It’s amazing.”
Manager Mancini, whose side had also secured Champions League football next season with a 1-0 win over Tottenham at Eastlands on Tuesday, was equally delighted with the victory and wants his side to build on this success.
“I can say only that I’m very happy for all the supporters,” said the Italian. “After many years they deserve to win this trophy. I didn’t feel we dominated this game. We need to improve but we are very happy. We did a small piece of history of Manchester City. We start now.”
The Manchester side had not won the cup themselves since 1969, but the Potters had not even been to a final and were the only surviving founder members of the Football League never to lift the trophy.
The 1-0 defeat was also a double whammy for manager Tony Pulis, whose last Wembley final saw his Gillingham side lose the 1999 Second Division play-offs to Manchester City.
The build-up had been dominated by talk of the competition being further devalued by the scheduling of today’s game. Manchester United clinching the Barclays Premier League title minutes before kick-off did not help matters, and neither, therefore, did a rather unfortunate pre-match rendition of We are the Champions.
But try telling that to the tens of thousands of City and Stoke fans crammed into Wembley for what was the first cup final for both clubs for more than a generation.
And try telling it to the managers, who each gambled on the fitness of key players as Carlos Tevez, Matthew Etherington and Robert Huth all started. Captain Tevez soon set about proving Mancini right, forcing a fine parry from Thomas Sorensen from 25 yards.
It was a sign of things to come as Mancini’s men belied their reputation for caution in an utterly dominant first-half display. Ryan Shawcross almost put into his own net and Toure drilled just wide from long range.
And City would have been ahead midway through the half but for a world-class save from Sorensen, who somehow clawed behind Mario Balotelli’s top-corner-bound curler. It was looking like Sorensen’s lucky day as he also survived being beaten to a long ball by Tevez and got away with spilling Vincent Kompany’s tame long-ranger.
His luck continued when Tevez brilliantly played in Mario Balotelli and Sorensen beat the ball down straight to David Silva, who rifled a shot into the ground and over the crossbar.
Emerging from harsh words at half-time, Stoke tore into City early in the second half but they were unable to produce the finishing touch and were almost caught on the break when Tevez squared for Silva, who hesitated just long enough for Shawcross to nick the ball away.
Etherington, who had looked less than fully fit, was immediately withdrawn for Dean Whitehead while Mancini responded to his side’s second-half slump by throwing on Adam Johnson for Gareth Barry and it immediately paid off.
City won the ball on the edge of the area and Balotelli exchanged passes via Huth, with the Italian’s shot blocked by Marc Wilson straight to Toure to blast home. Desperate defending and a fine save twice prevented Silva wrapping up victory, with Stoke throwing on John Carew in a bid to keep their dream alive.
Disappointment was naturally not difficult to find among the Stoke players but Sorensen, who had done so much to stem the Manchester tide, admitted Mancini’s men deserved their victory. He said: “It’s sad that we didn’t play better. We never really got playing.”
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