Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest to reach third successive FA Cup final

Rico Lewis scored after just 109 seconds to send Manchester City on their way to a third consecutive FA Cup final following a 2-0 defeat of Nottingham Forest at Wembley.

Josko Gvardiol extended City’s advantage after 51 minutes before they rode their luck when Morgan Gibbs-White hit the crossbar, and then the post, as Forest attempted a comeback.

Taiwo Awoniyi struck the City woodwork for a third time for Forest with 10 minutes remaining.

But on the day they were dethroned by Liverpool as Premier League champions, Pep Guardiola’s side survived to keep their sole hope of finishing the season with silverware alive.

City, who won the FA Cup in 2023 and finished runners-up last season, will now face Crystal Palace on May 17 following their 3-0 win against Aston Villa here a day earlier.

City failed to sell 5,000 of their allocated seats, and it was the Forest supporters – revelling in their first FA Cup semi-final in 34 years – who were making all the noise prior to the match.

But they were stunned into silence with fewer than two minutes gone when Lewis opened the scoring.

Lewis found Mateo Kovacic before he ghosted unmarked to the edge of the penalty area. When he received the ball back from Kovacic, Lewis took one touch to set himself before unleashing a fizzing effort with his next that Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels could do little to prevent from sailing into the bottom corner.

Lewis’ impressive early strike set the tone for an opening half totally dominated by Guardiola’s side. Indeed, for the first 10 minutes, Forest had only a handful of touches.

After 16 minutes, Omar Marmoush thrashed over when he might have hit the target, with defender Nico O’Reilly seeing his long-range shot going wide.

Forest ended a desperately