The magic of our FA Cup Final victory still doesn't feel like it's going to wear off for a while – truly, a day at Wembley which will be one to savoured for years to come.
And while we’re sure you’ll have seen Ebere Eze’s match-winning goal; Dean Henderson’s spectacular penalty save; and then all the celebrations a hundred times – or 200 – how about some of the smaller details?
With the full 90 minutes now available to rewatch via Palace TV+, below, here are some of the facts and figures you might’ve missed on the day …
The day was truly a club and community-wide occasion, with representation from our official charity, Palace for Life Foundation, ahead of kick-off.
Michael Lacey, the longest-serving staff member at the Foundation – having worked for Palace for Life since 1999 – brought the trophy onto the pitch alongside a representative from City’s community programmes.
Lacey is a long-time football coach, mentor, teacher and a huge Palace fan, who has been at Palace for Life Foundation for over 25 years, and has been heavily involved with the Premier League Kicks, even coaching Wilfried Zaha during his teenage years.
Well in, Michael.
The real joy of football isn’t always rooted in what happens on the pitch – it’s about who we share that with.
And before our historic triumph, a stunning supporter-led display – produced by the Holmesdale Fanatics, with fans coming together to raise over £45,000 to support it – saw that sentiment beamed from the heart of South London to the eyes of the watching world.
Find out more here about a pre-match tifo display for the ages – which was later named Overlap Moment of the Year.
We mentioned Eze’s goal – at the culmination of a flowing back-to-front move involving, at its end, Jean-Philippe Mateta, Daichi Kamada and Daniel Muñoz.
But did you notice that it was, in fact, our first shot – and indeed first touch – inside the Manchester City box for the entire match? It also stemmed from our first (of just six) passes into the Citizens’ box.
Ebs certainly made it count!
It didn’t come as much of a surprise, however, as the England international of course scored the opener in both our quarter-final and semi-final wins over Fulham and Aston Villa respectively to boot.
Efficiency was a theme of our entire Cup run: in 2024/25’s FA Cup, Palace netted 13 goals from 26 shots on target (50%).
From overall shots, only Leicester City (44.4%) and Ipswich Town (21.1%) held a stronger shot conversion rate than the Eagles (20%) among Premier League sides (who entered in the third round).
On that same note, Palace recorded just 15 touches in the opposition box during the final…
… and defensive duo Marc Guéhi and Muñoz recorded more than half of those (eight – four each!).
Influential at both ends of the pitch.
… it’s what you do with it.
Rewatch the 90 minutes, and it’s fairly apparent that City were dominant on the ball – enjoying 76.7% of the possession, according to Opta statistics – an some 78% on average of the territory.
In fact, City defender Rúben Dias completed more passes himself (129) than Palace did as an entire team (126)!
But despite that – and the fact that City’s 23 shots without scoring was the biggest number on record (records from 2014 onwards) in an FA Cup Final – few could argue that Oliver Glasner’s side were good value for their victory.
There were many heroes in our 24/25 FA Cup Final win – but it was Muñoz who was given the sponsor’s Player of the Match award.
This could be in no small part due to the fact that the Colombian wing-back recorded five successful tackles – the most of any player on the pitch.
Indeed last player to have more than Muñoz’s tackles total in a final was Leicester City’s Wilfried Ndidi in 2021 (seven).
Chris Richards, meanwhile, made 15 headers on the day – a team-high.
In total, Muñoz himself completed 15 tackles in the FA Cup this season – a number bettered only by Fulham’s Timothy Castagne (16) – whilst Maxence Lacroix led the charts for interceptions (nine).
Behind them, Dean Henderson made six saves in total, the most by a player in an FA Cup final since Joel Robles for Wigan in 2013 (also six) – including the first penalty save in an FA Cup final since Petr Cech’s for Chelsea against Portsmouth in 2010.
Additionally, no Palace player completed more successful passes than Henderson (16), or had more touches (46) of the ball.
The most common successful pass ‘combo’ was Henderson to Lacroix (eight instances), with three successful passes each to Guéhi and Richards.
It was the first time on Opta record (since 2005) that a goalkeeper had topped the charts for most completed passes for any side during a final in the competition!
So many incredible angles of the day, we could be here all day – but in particular, we can’t stop watching this one...
Watch more incredible FA Cup Final content now on Palace TV!
