"And it will be beautiful": Glasner's Palace immortalised under the Wembley arch

In 2010, Sharon Warnock had a dream. It was the night before her husband, Neil, and his Crystal Palace side were set to play Wolves in an FA Cup fourth-round tie, and visions of a right-back scoring the winning goal came to her as she slept. Neil Warnock being Neil Warnock, the veteran manager planned his tactical setup for the game ahead based entirely on the dreams of his wife, and second-choice fullback Danny Butterfield was picked to play up top. Whether it was luck, fate, or the divine powers of the all-seeing Sharon Warnock, Butterfield's subsequent seven-minute perfect hat-trick marked the most memorable story in an otherwise disappointing FA Cup record at Selhurst Park, until now..

The intervening 15 years between Mrs. Warnock's preminitions and today have been a rollercoaster for South London's red and blue. 2009/10 saw players left unpaid as the club tumbled into administration. It was only Darren Ambrose's goal away at Hillsborough that separated Palace from relegation to League One, but the Eagles have soared ever since. 12 consecutive seasons in the top flight followed promotion in 2013, all leading up to yesterday's crowning moment in HA9.

Austrian coach Oliver Glasner, a previous Europa League winner with Eintracht Frankfurt, found himself pitted against his tactical opposite in Manchester City's Pep Guardiola following semi-final triumph over Villa. Far from the Catalan coach's possession-based system-oriented football, Glasner's side held only 22% of the ball throughout, and had to adopt an aggressive defence to silence Haaland and Doku.

Guardiola's rigorous drilling has led Manchester's blue side to unimaginable glory across his 9 years in the city, but can reduce the likes of Grealish, Doku and Savinho from entertainers to system players, at times as robotic as they are repetitive. Glasner, on the other hand, has no such weakness. While City's attacking play boiled down to a tiring routine of 'pass the ball to Doku, run to the byline, hope for the best', Palace's Ebere Eze was afforded creative freedom to harass sky blue defenders. Following excellent wide play by January 2024 arrival Daniel Muñoz, Eze delayed his run and calmly slotted home with only 16 minutes on the clock, firing the Palace end into rapture.

Scoring first could well have cursed the rest of the match for Glasner's Eagles. In their last FA Cup final appearance in 2016, Palace took a 1-0 lead through Jason Puncheon late on against Jose Mourinho's Manchester United, but went on to lose 1-2. Of the 2016 side, only Joel Ward remains at Selhurst Park, while his fullback partner Pape Souare now plays National League football for Ebbsfleet, following a spell at Morecambe.

Just last month Palace were two-up at the Etihad before a vintage De Bruyne performance had them hit for five and sent packing back to Croydon. This time around, however, the Belgian was frustratingly lacking in the big moments, dragging shots wide and overhitting crosses with his side chasing the lead. By comparison, the blue and red double-pivot of Daichi Kamada and Adam Wharton was resolute, pouncing on every loose ball with an urgency that City - for whom winning a major trophy is like finding a penny, after a decade of success - couldn't match.

It couldn't have been a great final without controversy, and in that regard neutrals were hardly left disappointed. When Glasner's coaches and Pep's medical staff weren't trying to kill one another, for example, their eyes would have been locked on former Sheffield United loanee and man-of-the-match Dean Henderson. The Palace keeper batted away a ball from the oncoming Erling Haaland whilst outside of the box, but was spared a red card for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity via a VAR intervention. "Pathetic", said ITV pundit and former Palace man Ian Wright as Henderson went unpunished.

Those who made the short trip from South London will feel relieved however, as their number one proceeded to have the game of his life. The England international saved Oscar Marmoush's 36th-minute penalty, and his array of phenomenal stops in the 2nd half almost single-handedly won his side the cup. Guardiola appeared unimpressed with Henderson's antics, however, as the pair were filmed clashing following full time.

Presumably feeling a little sorry for Manchester City, the officials signalled that 10 minutes would be added on in second-half injury time, inspiring a faint sense of hope in the 'cityzens' end. Any shouts of encouragement for Pep's players, though, will have been drowned out by the Palace faithful. Led by ultras group Holmesdale Fanatics and rallied by a pre-game tifo, Eagles fans pushed their team across the line with a rousing atmosphere.

Crystal Palace will now join the likes of Wigan Athletic and Portsmouth in having qualified for Europa League football following FA cup success. Fans who made the trip to Wembley may soon find themselves making the considerably longer journey to Kazakhstan, or Amsterdam. Having lifted their first major honour, masterminded by a previous winner of the UEL in Oliver Glasner, Selhurst Park's faithful will be hungry for more, and who can blame them?