Manchester // Whenever it seems the FA Cup is in danger of losing its appeal, along come Wigan Athletic to revive it.
Not that Manchester City are likely to agree.
For the second successive season, the enterprising, endearing outsiders were their undoing. Once again, Wigan were wonderful.
A club that had barely made a mark in the FA Cup until last year are now history makers and standard bearers for the underdog. Beating City at in the final at Wembley last May was remarkable enough, but then Wigan were a Premier League club, albeit only for another 96 hours. While they are FA Cup holders, winning at the Etihad Stadium was a monumental achievement.
It puts them in elite company. Only Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Barcelona had triumphed on City turf before Uwe Rosler’s team put a definitive end to Manuel Pellegrini’s pursuit of the quadruple.
A four-pronged pursuit of honours is likely to be reduced to two this week, with Barcelona likely to eliminate City from the Champions League. That is expected. This was a seismic shock. Sheffield United and Swansea City have sprung surprises, too, but this was the biggest upset of this season’s competition.
It was a tale of City failure, of a day when the most prolific team in England did not muster a shot on target for 65 minutes and when Pellegrini’s buccaneers looked listless for long parts.
“Maybe it is the worst half we have in the year,” the manager admitted. “It was a pace problem. [When] we reacted, I think it was a little bit late because we couldn’t draw or win the game.”
Indeed, despite a late rally and a Samir Nasri goal, only one man with City loyalties truly acquitted himself well: the Wigan manager Uwe Rosler, a cult hero in the City attack during the dark days of the 1990s and whose bond with the club was cemented when he named his sons after Tony Book and Colin Bell, two past greats.
Now the men etching their names into club history are adopted Wiganers. If Ben Watson, scorer of last season’s FA Cup final winner against City, has legendary status in a corner of Lancashire, Emmerson Boyce, the man who skippered their only silverware-winning side, added to his reputation by taking them to Wembley again.
When City threatened an equaliser, the Wigan captain made an extraordinary goal-saving block to prevent Edin Dzeko from scoring. It meant that Jordi Gomez and James Perch’s goals were decisive. Wigan face Arsenal in the semi-final.
City were left to reflect on costly defensive errors. The first culprit was all too predictable. Martin Demichelis’s mistakes occur rather too frequently. Barcelona, like Wigan, benefited. The clumsy, one-paced Argentine bundled Marc-Antoine Fortune over in the box. While City disputed the award of a penalty, Jordi Gomez converted it with nonchalant ease.
Then, 68 seconds into the second half, Gael Clichy was caught ball-watching at the back post as James Perch nipped in to meet James McArthur’s centre and open his Wigan account.
History was repeating itself for City, having trailed 2-0 to Championship opponents in the fourth round. Then a double change from Pellegrini led to a comeback against Watford. He took a more drastic approach yesterday, making a triple substitution.
Dzeko, one of the newcomers, headed Clichy’s cross against the foot of the post. Then City struck. Micah Richards picked out Nasri with a header and the Frenchman drilled in a low half-volley.
Richards, Sergio Aguero and Dzeko came close to levelling. Boyce performed heroics to deny the Bosnian a tap in and Wigan held on.
“What a block from Emmerson Boyce,” Rosler said. “I spoke a lot about bravery, and we also had lady luck on our side.”
That was a modest assessment, however, and the scale of the success was not lost on the German.
“Is this my greatest day in management?” he asked rhetorically. “Probably. This was my chance to partially replicate what [former coach] Roberto Martinez did last season.”
He did that, just as his Wigan emulated the Spaniard’s side.
Once again, they were the scourge of City. Once again, they were superb.
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