Bernardo Silva may have spent some dark nights of the soul since Wednesday evening replaying that infamous penalty to nowhere on repeat in his mind, although football always offers its favourite sons a second chance sooner than expected.
It might have been 24 hours too early for a fulminating Pep Guardiola, but Manchester City followed Champions League quarter-final shoot-out defeat by Real Madrid with a different flavour of Cup win three days later. They won this FA Cup semi-final, not by dominating their opponent but, rather as Real had done three days earlier, hanging in through the difficult moments and then striking when opportunity presented itself.
Bernardo, who had wafted the biggest penalty of his life into the gloves of Real’s goalkeeper Andriy Lunin in Wednesday’s shoot-out, scored on 84 minutes of a tie Chelsea should have won. Guardiola would later embark on a diatribe on the scheduling of the game which was part outrage, part glorious fit of pique. At one point he vowed never to do another favour for the corporation, although stopped short of a full Sir Alex Ferguson-style BBC boycott.
Guardiola said his club should have played their semi-final on Sunday by virtue of their midweek game. For his erstwhile European champions, and Bernardo in particular, it seemed like something of a balm to win this game in the way they did.
This was a tired Guardiola team playing from memory of the old passing patterns and territorial gains, but much more vulnerable than usual. If Real had shown the way to exploit the space in behind City’s defence then Chelsea followed by example, although it will be much to Mauricio Pochettino’s regret that he does not have a goalscorer like those available at the Bernabeu.
A deflected cross to the feet of Bernardo whose shot, also deflected, means that City have a place in the FA Cup final as well as the advantage in the Premier League title race. The domestic double was once something to be prized, although it seems to matter less these days – or at least since trebles became a possibility. It always required an effort beyond the ordinary and that is what City expended. They found a way to win.
