LONDON, (Reuters) – Wigan Athletic claimed one of the greatest FA Cup final upsets of all time when a 90th minute header from substitute Ben Watson gave them a 1-0 win over highly-fancied Manchester City at Wembley Stadium today.
Wigan, still threatened with relegation from the Premier League, played the better football throughout and deserved to win against a largely listless City side who had defender Pablo Zabaleta sent off for a second yellow card in the 84th minute.
It was Wigan’s first FA Cup final in their 81-year history and they won it when Watson, who had only been on the field for nine minutes and had broken his leg earlier this season, powered an unstoppable header past keeper Joe Hart from a Shaun Maloney corner.
Wigan’s win was the biggest upset since Wimbledon beat Liverpool in the 1988 final and represented a personal triumph for their chairman Dave Whelan who broke his leg playing for Blackburn Rovers in the 1960 FA Cup final.
“We didn’t win by luck – from start to finish it was an incredible performance,” said Wigan manager Roberto Martinez. “The FA Cup is such a special tournament, and everyone deserves to feel proud today.
An emotional Whelan added: “Fantastic. I had the dream but I didn’t publish it. I thought we would get to the final and win 1-0 and it is repayment for me breaking my leg in 1960.”
Wigan now face two Premier League matches to save themselves from relegation, but will become the first team to win the FA Cup and go down in the same season if they fail to stay up.
“We’ve got two big games in front of us and we wanted to conserve energy, but it was difficult,” Martinez told the BBC.
“Everyone wrote us off before the game, but we were following a dream. You cannot describe the feeling at the moment. My players faced adversity and played with a smile. I am so proud of them.”
INCREDIBLE CHANCES
City manager Roberto Mancini added: “I’m disappointed. We conceded a goal in the last seconds in a game where we didn’t play very well but we didn’t deserve to lose.
“We had two or three incredible chances but in the end we didn’t play like we usually do…”
City, FA Cup winners in 2011 and Premier League champions last season, were the overwhelming favourites to win the famous trophy for the sixth time but were largely outplayed against the underdogs who put their erratic league form behind them.
City had the first attempt at goal when Yaya Toure brought a low diving save from Joel Robles following a Carlos Tevez free-kick in the fourth minute, but Wigan unexpectedly took control of the game with the Manchester side playing into their hands.
Instead of using their width, City attempted to build attacks though the middle and made little progress against Wigan’s back three of Paul Scharner, Antolin Alcaraz and Emmerson Boyce blocking their progress.
Instead, Wigan played the ball wide with the excellent Callum McManaman on the right and Roger Espinoza on the left creating space and opportunities.
Indeed, if McManaman had shown slightly more composure in the ninth minute he could have put Wigan ahead.
In the clear after an exchange of passes with Arouna Kone, he attempted to cut inside but dwelled too long on the ball before sweeping a curling shot wide of Hart’s right hand post.
TALKING POINT
Hart’s selection was the main talking point before kickoff when he was named in the starting lineup rather than Romanian Costel Pantilimon, who had played in all of City’s FA Cup matches on the way to the final but said in the build-up that he planned to leave the club at the end of the season.
But the best saves of the first half came from Wigan’s Joel Robles, first when he stuck out a leg to block what seemed a certain goal-bound strike from Carlos Tevez after 29 minutes, and then keeping out a shot by Samir Nasri just before halftime.
City began to play with more pace and dynamism after the break largely because James Milner had replaced the subdued Nasri after 54 minutes and began to have an impact by making some inroads on the right.
But with Toure, who scored the winner in the 2011 final, playing deep for long periods and not really threatening the Wigan defence until the later stages, City never seriously looked like making a breakthrough.
Wigan had the same problem at the other end. Despite some swift, attractive build-up play, they rarely troubled Hart until the dramatic finale on the stroke of 90 minutes when the England keeper was powerless to stop the ball flying past him.
Even if they had lost Wigan knew they would play in the Europa League next season because City had already clinched a Champions League spot. But this Cup win could now galvanise them to extend their Premier League status for a ninth season.
