Erling Haaland of Manchester City reacts with team-mates during the FA Cup final between Crystal Palace and City
Dejected Manchester City players during the FA Cup final against Crystal Palace
One of those days in one of those seasons - just not quite how anyone though it should be. Manchester City contrived to lose an FA Cup Final they should have won despite one of their better performances of what has been a disappointing campaign.
If nothing else, it was a wild ride of an afternoon from the moment the teamsheet dropped. Mateo Kovacic was out injured and there was no place in the squad for Rico Lewis and James McAtee, with their places taken by January arrivals Vitor Reis and Claudio Echeverri.
The starting XI was more startling, with Blues transported back to the nightmare of Porto as Pep Guardiola almost went without a midfield in a side that has been overrun far too often this season. Attack, attack, attack was the mantra as Kevin De Bruyne started alongside two wingers and two strikers in a team that looked to blow Palace away.
They nearly did too, strangling and suffocating them in an opening spell of 15 minutes that saw them have 88 per cent possession and play almost exclusively in the Palace third as they forced Dean Henderson into two good saves.
Obviously then, Palace opened the scoring moments later with one of their first forays into the City half. Jean Philippe Mateta held up the ball well, Daniel Munoz ran and crossed and Eberechi Eze got into the box ahead of Manu Akanji to turn past Stefan Ortega.
It didn't really work as a snapshot of the season because City had played much better, although this has been a campaign about Guardiola's side struggling in both boxes. Once again, the Wembley veterans had it all to do.
Their task really should have been easier when Henderson clawed the ball away from Erling Haaland as he raced towards goal. The Palace keeper handled the ball outside of his box and the ludicrous reason that VAR gave for not intervening was that Haaland was heading away from goal - failing to acknowledge was that the only reason he was heading away from goal was that the Palace keeper had illegally punched the ball that way.
Guardiola had said that this final would not be about tactics but mentality, and his fighters won a penalty when Bernardo Silva was felled in the box. Curiously, Haaland gave it up for Omar Marmoush and the Egyptian's effort was saved by a keeper that shouldn't have been on the pitch.
When Henderson saved well from Doku minutes later and Kevin De Bruyne put the rebound over, it did feel like City were being trolled. If they were going to win this final, they would have to do it themselves without any help form anywhere else.
In the past, they have done it. That is why this team has created a golden age for the club and achieved things that no other side in English football has done - why, as a banner in the City end said before the game, they have won the lot with KDB.
They just haven't been able to do it this season - and here again they came up empty whatever they did. When a second Palace goal was ruled out for offside around the hour mark, De Bruyne geed up his teammates on his final Wembley appearance for them yet it wasn't enough.
After a break for the latest Palace injury, Haaland and Ruben Dias both did their best to get the team going. The response wasn't there.
City players have stuck to what they have always done this season because it has worked so well for them in their careers, and watching most of this game you would say the same. This season though, as Haaland admitted before the final, not one of them have been good enough.
That extends to Guardiola, who having found a settled way of playing in recent weeks made rash decisions with his team and bench. Leaving homegrown products Lewis and McAtee out of the squad completely for new unknowns after they have helped you get to the final is only salvageable if the fresh faces make a difference, except they didn't.
Jack Grealish has to be doomed as well if a debut for Echeverri was preferred to bringing him on to get City back into the game, and while Echeverri made things happen in a lively cameo he couldn't affect the result. The fine line between genius and madness for Guardiola is often unfairly defined wholly by results, but this was not a vintage day for him in what has been one of his poorest seasons.
He was on the pitch before the end screaming as Jeremy Doku wasted a late opportunity, but the man who has masterminded City's brilliant triumph was another to end up on the losing side. City fans would rather have lost to Palace than a rival such as United or Arsenal, yet there were still tears from some of the 33,000 fans who had paid their good money to come down and support a team they desperately wanted to win.
Onto the final week, where City simply must be better against Bournemouth and Fulham if they want to avoid the embarrassment of missing out on Champions League football next season. They will not be short of words but players and manager need to do their talking where it matters.
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