LONDON: Crystal Palace reached the FA Cup final for the first time in nine years as Ismaila Sarr’s double and a rocket from Eberechi Eze sealed a 3-0 win against Aston Villa at Wembley on Saturday.
Oliver Glasner’s side took the lead in the semifinal through Eze’s long-range blast before Sarr netted twice in the second half.
In the final on May 17, Palace will face Nottingham Forest or Manchester City, who meet in the second semifinal on Sunday.
The Eagles have never won the FA Cup, losing their two final appearances against Manchester United in 2016 and 1990.
“All the credit to the players. They had to work so hard. They had to overcome a few difficult moments,” Glasner said.
“We got more control and it was an unbelievable performance. The players stuck to the plan and we never lost our heads.
“I don’t know at the moment how I feel — a bit exhausted. The players have four days off now. They should enjoy the moment.”
Villa, who last won the FA Cup in 1957, were hoping to make the final for the first time since 2015.
But Unai Emery’s team produced a dismal display and will have to settle for fighting to qualify for the Champions League via a top five finish in the Premier League.
“When they scored the first goal it was more difficult for us and we only reacted after 2-0 and then we created more chances to score and we didn’t do. In transition they are very good, and they deserve to win,” Emery said.
“Sorry to our supporters because they were motivated. We have to accept it. We have to be quick to react because in the league we have the most important objective.”
Jean-Philippe Mateta had the ball in the back of the net just before the half-hour mark, but it was chalked off after a VAR check confirmed the Palace striker had fouled Ezri Konsa in the build-up.
There was no such doubt about Eze’s opener, however, after Sarr got in the way of Pau Torres’ pass, then collected the resulting ricochet to the right of the Villa area.
Sarr found Eze and the midfielder curled a superb strike beyond the reach of Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
Torres looked for an instant reply when he nodded just over the crossbar.
Konsa came closer, forcing Dean Henderson into a low save with a header of his own from a corner.
Villa piled on more pressure after the restart when Henderson made another fine save to deny John McGinn’s sharp volley, then Lucas Digne fired narrowly wide through a crowd of players.
Palace were awarded a 53rd-minute penalty after Eze was tugged down by Boubacar Kamara and Mateta stepped up to the spot after a VAR check, but his shot clipped the post and went wide.
Just as Villa started to gain momentum, Adam Wharton intercepted a pass and, after a quick touch from Mateta, Sarr fired into the bottom corner.
Henderson repelled a blast from Villa substitute Leon Bailey, moments after Mateta slid in to deny Ross Barkley.
Sarr nodded Eze’s cross off target, while Matty Cash’s attempt to claw a late goal back for Villa sailed wide.
Sarr put the seal on Palace’s impressive performance in stoppage-time, outpacing Konsa before slotting home to send the Eagles into the final.
Palace sweep past Villa to reach FA Cup final
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Palace sweep past Villa to reach FA Cup final
- Oliver Glasner’s side took the lead in the semifinal through Eze’s long-range blast
- “All the credit to the players. They had to work so hard. They had to overcome a few difficult moments,” Glasner said
Pegula eases past Swiatek to win Bad Homburg title
- US star denies the Pole her first career title on grass, days before the start of Wimbledon
BAD HOMBURG: Top seed Jessica Pegula contained Iga Swiatek’s heavy topspin game on grass to earn a 6-4 7-5 victory on Saturday and lift the Bad Homburg Open title.
The American held serve throughout and gave up just one breakpoint in the match, denying the Pole her first career title on grass, just two days before the start of Wimbledon.
Swiatek has not won a singles title since her 2024 French Open victory.
“I know you say you can’t play on grass but you are very, very good on grass,” Pegula said, addressing Swiatek after the match. “It was a special week.”
Pegula won a break at 3-3 in the first set to move 5-3 up.
The 31-year-old world No. 3, chasing her third title of 2025 and her first since April, landed the first set soon afterwards when the Pole sent a forehand long.
Swiatek put up a fight in the second set, edging close to a break but failing to carve out a break point.
It was Pegula who earned a breakpoint at 5-5 and she converted it with a sizzling crosscourt forehand.
Pegula held serve to seal her second career title on grass, following last year’s win in Berlin.
For Swiatek, who shed tears while waiting for the trophy ceremony, it was still a successful week after reaching her first career final on the surface.
“You have an amazing game and you showed it throughout the tournament,” Swiatek told Pegula. “Hopefully we will have many more finals together.”
“I feel it is going a good way and thank you for the opportunity to play here. This tournament shows there is hope for me on grass,” Swiatek said.
Separately, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka is hoping an outburst after her French Open final defeat to Coco Gauff will prove a turning point in maintaining her emotional control in the biggest matches.
The three-time Grand Slam champion threw away a one-set lead to lose to the American in Paris earlier this month.
Afterwards, Sabalenka described her performance as the “the worst final I’ve ever played.”
The Belarusian later apologized to Gauff for her comments and the pair put their differences aside by performing a dance together on the Wimbledon lawns for social media.
“I was just completely, like, upset with myself, and emotions got over me. I just completely lost it,” said Sabalenka at a pre-Wimbledon press conference on Saturday.
“I believe I get overemotional at the last stages of the tournaments because I have this desire of winning.
“Sometimes it (gets the better of) me and I can lose control over my emotions. So, I would love to improve that at the last stages of the tournament.
“But honestly I’m kind of glad what happened to me at Paris because I was able to learn a lot. I was able to sit back and being open to myself, not just to ignore some things. I think I realized a lot of things about myself in those last stages of the tournaments.”
Sabalenka’s comments after the French Open were fiercely criticized in the US for taking the shine off Gauff’s second Grand Slam title.
“Of course, she got my respect. She knows it,” added Sabalenka.
“I’m happy that she was, like, ‘yeah, it’s all good, don’t worry’. As you saw the (dancing) video, I was talking, we are good, we are friends. I hope the US media can be easy on me right now.”
Sabalenka has never gone beyond the semifinals on the Wimbledon grass and begins her quest for glory against Canadian qualifier Carson Branstine, a player she admitted to having limited knowledge of.
PSG Club World Cup reunion with Messi recalls unhappier times
- PSG achieved their crowning glory in their first season after definitively shifting their focus away from signing superstar players to instead allow a brilliant coach to work with a hungry, dynamic young team
ATLANTA: Paris Saint-Germain have come to the Club World Cup as newly crowned champions of Europe, but a meeting with the Inter Miami of Lionel Messi in the last 16 this Sunday brings back memories of unhappier times for the French club.
PSG’s stunning 5-0 demolition of Inter Milan in Munich at the end of last month which allowed them to win the UEFA Champions League for the first time completed an incredible season for the Qatar-backed side under the coaching of Luis Enrique.
It is no coincidence that PSG achieved their crowning glory in their first season after definitively shifting their focus away from signing superstar players to instead allow a brilliant coach to work with a hungry, dynamic young team.
Kylian Mbappe’s move a year ago to Real Madrid followed the departures in 2023 of Neymar, the world’s most expensive signing when he joined in 2017, and Messi, in the same summer Luis Enrique was appointed.
When PSG pounced in August 2021 to sign Messi after a cash-strapped Barcelona were unable to keep him, the French side logically thought the Argentinian could be the man to deliver elusive Champions League glory.
Messi, who was 34 at the time, thought the same thing.
“My dream is to win another Champions League and I think I am in the ideal place to have that chance and to do it,” he said at his unveiling.
Alas, it did not work out that way, either in Messi’s first season in Paris, under compatriot Mauricio Pochettino in 2021/22, or in the next campaign under Christophe Galtier.
PSG had got to the Champions League final and then semifinals in the two seasons prior to Messi’s arrival, so he looked like the final piece in the jigsaw.
Instead they went backwards with him in the side, going out of Europe’s elite club competition in the last 16 two years running.
Having to fit in Messi — with his estimated annual salary of 30 million euros ($35.2 million) after tax — as well as Neymar and Mbappe may have increased the star appeal, but it weakened them as a team.
Towards the end the Barcelona legend was even being jeered by some sections of the PSG support who felt Messi’s commitment to the cause was not what it should have been.
Messi was a PSG player when he inspired Argentina to World Cup glory in Qatar in late 2022, but there were only flashes of his genius at club level in France.
His statistics stand up to any scrutiny, with 32 goals and 35 assists in 75 appearances, and he did win two Ligue 1 titles while helping increase PSG’s value as a brand.
But one memorable quote by a columnist in French sports daily L’Equipe rather summed things up.
“PSG have not been better than they were before because of him...and he seemed to have as much desire to play in Ligue 1 as he did to go to the dentist,” wrote Vincent Duluc.
Fast forward two years and Messi is enjoying the twilight of his career in Major League Soccer with Inter Miami, the team he has helped to qualify for the knockout stage of this Club World Cup.
Fate has therefore thrown up a last-16 showdown with PSG on Sunday in Atlanta, at the same stadium where he scored a marvellous free-kick to secure a 2-1 win over Porto last week.
“All is not forgiven,” said the front page of L’Equipe in France on Friday as it described the feelings of “failure and bitterness” left behind from the Argentine’s spell there.
Miami coach Javier Mascherano, meanwhile, believes the unhappy memory of his time in Paris could spur Messi on.
“It’s clear that for us it’s better if he plays angry, because he’s one of those players who, when he has something on his mind, gives an extra effort,” Mascherano told ESPN.
With Luis Enrique and PSG boasting big ambitions of adding a world title to their European crown, there would be even more bitterness felt if Messi — days after his 38th birthday — managed to knock them out on Sunday.
Palmeiras edge Brazilian rivals Botafogo in extra time at Club World Cup
- Winners of the Copa Libertadores in 2020 and 2021, Palmeiras will now stay in Philadelphia
- All eyes were on Estevao, the 18-year-old winger who will join Chelsea once the tournament is over
PHILADELPHIA: Substitute Paulinho scored an extra-time winner to settle a Brazilian battle of attrition as Palmeiras edged Botafogo 1-0 on Saturday to win through to the Club World Cup quarter-finals.
The winger came on at the same time in the second half as Palmeiras coach Abel Ferreira withdrew teenage sensation Estevao Willian, a move that appeared baffling at the time but ultimately proved inspired.
The tie had reached the 100th minute when Paulinho collected a pass by Richard Rios on the right flank and was afforded the time and space to come inside into the box before slotting a low shot into the far corner.
That sparked wild celebrations among the Palmeiras fans who made up the vast majority of the 33,657 crowd inside Lincoln Financial Field, and the side from Sao Paulo held on to win the last-16 showdown despite having captain Gustavo Gomez sent off late on.
Winners of the Copa Libertadores in 2020 and 2021, Palmeiras will now stay in Philadelphia for a last-eight tie next Friday against either Benfica or Chelsea, who meet later Saturday in Charlotte.
They had been the more dangerous side throughout in this meeting of the top two in last year’s Brazilian league, with almost all of the chances falling the way of the men in green.
Rio de Janeiro side Botafogo pipped Palmeiras to the domestic title and also won the Copa Libertadores for the first time in their history in 2024.
They then lost their coach and several key players, but still managed to beat European champions Paris Saint-Germain during the group stage of the Club World Cup as they qualified for the knockout phase ahead of Atletico Madrid.
Nevertheless Palmeiras were the more lively of the two teams in a game played in warm midday conditions in Philadelphia.
All eyes were on Estevao, the 18-year-old winger who will join Chelsea once the tournament is over and is seen as Brazil’s next big thing.
He found it hard to make an impact in what was for long spells a disappointing game pockmarked by moments of quality.
Colombian midfielder Rios came close to scoring in first-half stoppage time with a thunderous shot from the edge of the box that was deflected onto the roof of the net.
Estevao then came to life after the restart, forcing a good save from Botafogo goalkeeper John Victor and then putting the ball in the net only to be denied by an offside flag.
There was surprise around the stadium when the starlet was taken off just after the hour mark alongside striker Vitor Roque, with Luighi and Paulinho sent into the attack.
A Mauricio header from a Joaquin Piquerez cross was tipped over and Paulinho then blazed high from a good position as normal time ended goalless.
Into the extra half-hour they went, and a Rios piledriver was parried behind before the goal finally arrived thanks to the once-capped Brazil winger who played in the Atletico Mineiro side beaten by Botafogo in last year’s Libertadores final.
The substitute was then promptly substituted, his job done for the day.
Botafogo pushed for an equalizer that would have led to a penalty shoot-out, but could not find it even after Paraguayan center-back Gomez walked for a second booking in the 116th minute for grappling off the ball with Alexander Barboza.
Coco Gauff says criticism of Aryna Sabalenka’s French Open comments went ‘too far’
- The Belarusian later wrote to apologize to Gauff and said her comments were “unprofessional”
- Gauff is trying to make sure the criticism stops
LONDON: It didn’t take long for Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka to patch up their relationship after this month’s French Open final.
Now as Wimbledon is about to start, Gauff is hoping everyone else can also forget what the top-ranked Sabalenka said in the wake of her loss to the American at Roland-Garros.
A day after dancing together on Wimbledon’s Center Court in a TikTok video, the two tennis players faced more questions on Saturday about the aftermath of Sabalenka’s comments right after the final, when she said her loss had more to do with her own mistakes than Gauff’s performance.
The Belarusian later wrote to apologize to Gauff and said her comments were “unprofessional,” but not before she faced some major backlash from fans and pundits — especially in the United States.
Gauff is trying to make sure the criticism stops.
“I’m not the person that will fuel hate in the world,” said Gauff, who opens her Wimbledon campaign against Dayana Yastremska on Tuesday. “I think people were taking it too far. … It was just really targeting and saying a lot of things that I felt were not nice. I didn’t want to fuel that more.”
Sabalenka, who faces Carson Branstine on No. 1 Court on Monday, said she hopes the
TikTok video shows that all is well between the two.
“We are good, we are friends,” the three-time major winner said. “I hope the US media can be easy on me right now.”
Sabalenka reiterated that she never meant to offend Gauff.
“I was just completely upset with myself, and emotions got over me,” she said. “I just completely lost it.”
Gauff did acknowledge that she was initially tempted to hit back publicly at Sabalenka, who said the American “won the match not because she played incredible; just because I made all of those mistakes from ... easy balls.”
But after Sabalenka reached out to apologize, she was quick to bury any grudge.
“I preach love, I preach light,” Gauff said. “I just want us to be Kumbaya, live happily, hakuna matata, and be happy here.”
Saudi Arabia complete preparations ahead of Gold Cup quarterfinal clash with Mexico
- The Green Falcons held their last training session at Phoenix Rising Stadium in Arizona
GLENDALE, Arizona: Saudi Arabia’s national football team have concluded their final preparations ahead of their high-stakes quarterfinal encounter against Mexico in the 2025 CONCACAF Gold Cup on Saturday.
The Green Falcons held their last training session at Phoenix Rising Stadium in Arizona, with head coach Herve Renard overseeing the workout.
The session featured warm-ups, passing drills, tactical routines, and stretching exercises as the squad fine-tuned their approach for the match at State Farm Stadium in Glendale.
There was some positive news on the injury front, with defender Abdullah Madu rejoining full team training.
However, midfielder Hammam Al-Hamami was sidelined after suffering an ankle injury during Thursday’s session and did not take part in the final run-out.
Kick-off for the quarterfinal is scheduled for Saturday night local time, as Saudi Arabia look to book their place in the semifinals of the tournament for the first time since joining the Gold Cup as a guest nation.
