Ismaila Sarr scored a brace to help Crystal Palace thrash Aston Villa 3-0 at Wembley in the first FA Cup semi-final of 2025, reaching the competition’s final for just the third time in their history after an emphatic fifth unbeaten match against the seven-time winners.
FA Cup semi-finals are typically tense affairs - but for two sides whose success in this competition has been limited in recent history, this was more so than most.
That certainly played into this first semi-final tie being a bit of a non-event in the opening stages, with a pair of yellow cards being the only notable action.
The touchpaper was almost lit midway through the half, though, when Lucas Digne’s tame cross incredibly caused a whole host of problems for the Palace back line, and Morgan Rogers volleyed narrowly wide at the far post.
The game certainly did spark into life from that point onwards, but it was Palace who had all the momentum. They had the ball in the back of the net soon after that miss, through Jean-Philippe Matete, but a foul on Ezri Konsa in the build-up denied the Frenchman.
But Villa didn’t heed that warning sign, and soon found themselves behind when Eberechi Eze hammered home from the edge after the area after he was teed up by Ismaila Sarr.
Palace could, and probably should, have been two goals to the good at half-time, but a gaffe from Tyrick Mitchell, who kicked thin air 12 yards from goal after being teed up perfectly by Sarr, let Aston Villa off the hook.
Reprieves were proving to be the order of the day for Villa, who were handed an even bigger one within 10 minutes of the restart.
A clumsy Boubacar Kamara challenge on Eze inside the area saw Anthony Taylor point to the spot without hesitation, but fortunately for them, Mateta watched on with anguish as his penalty bounced away off the post.
Yet, it wasn’t long before Palace finally had that precious two-goal lead. Adam Wharton was dogged in winning the ball back, and when it broke favourably for Sarr, he strode forward and hammered an effort beyond Emiliano Martinez’s desperate dive from all of 25 yards.
As expected, Villa ramped the pressure up in an attempt to create a grandstand finish, but in truth, Palace should’ve been out of sight when Sarr headed wide from six yards in the dying minutes, after Daichi Kamada planted an inch-perfect cross onto his head.
That miss proved immaterial to the result, as Palace booked their spot in a final against Nottingham Forest or Manchester City with extra panache, when Sarr added a third in stoppage time with a powerful climax to a classic counter-attack.
Villa, meanwhile, will now have to put all their proverbial eggs in the Premier League basket, where they are still in a close race for the top five, and a UEFA Champions League encore in 2025/26.
