Bournemouth 1-2 Manchester City: FA Cup quarter-final – as it happened (2025)

David Hytner has filed his match report, so that’s my cue to go out into the evening sunshine and ring my mum. Thanks for your company, correspondence and views on falling empires. I leave you with a headline in which Nico O’Reilly can consider himself unlucky not to appear.

Andoni Iraola is dignified in defeat. He says what almost anyone else would say: Bournemouth were the better team in the first half, City in the second. “They keep control of the ball, we couldn’t affect it.” He accepts that Kepa could have done better for the winning goal. “But that’s not why we lost – we didn’t have the same intensity in the second half.”

Strange but true. This is City’s first away win against a team in the top half of the Premier League since … the opening weekend, when they won 2-0 at Chelsea.

“Today we were a team,” Pep adds. “In November we came here in flip-flops, we came for the holidays… Today was [about] how much we run, how much we fight.” O’Reilly, he says, is “sure to play” in the semi-final.

And here is Pep. “Yes, we did it,” he says. “Seven times in a row, semi-finals of FA Cup…. This is one of the toughest places to come… Really, really pleased for that.”

Pep sends his representative on earth, Bernardo Silva, out toi be interviewed alongside Nico O’Reilly. Asked what made the difference, Bernardo mentions two factors. One is the young man standing next to him – “unbelievable… his energy changed the game.” The other is “the motivation … this is the only hope of winning something.”

Bournemouth were typically bright and busy in the first half, when they saved a penalty from Erling Haaland and put together a good team goal for Evanilsen. But then they just disappeared. Pep’s first sub, O’Reilly, laid on the equaliser for Haaland and the winner for Pep’s second sub, Marmoush. City still have their frailties – and now face Forest, who beat them the other day – but they still know how to win FA Cup matches.

“Hi Tim,” says Ollie Driesen. “Maybe empires fall a few centuries later than expected sometimes?” Good line!

Crystal Palace v Aston Villa.

Nottingham Forest v Manchester City.

Both games to be played on the weekend of 26-27 April.

City advance into the semi-finals at Wembley for the seventh year in a row.

The man of the match is … Nico O’Reilly, who only joined in at half-time and then produced two assists.

90+5 min McAtee joins he procession of yellow cards as Bournemouth win a free kick. It’s in their own half, Kepa hoofs it upfield, but they can’t find anything approaching a shot.

90+4 min City are knocking the ball around like the aristocrats they were until they came to this ground in November.

90+2 min Chances! For De Bruyne, then McAtee, possibly Marmoush too. Bournemouth manage a block or two and a decent save from Kepa, who takes it on the chest.

90 min A glimmer of hope for Bournemouth: there will be seven more minutes.

89 min Adams chops down Grealish and picks up a yellow card.

88 min If Bournemouth have had a shot in this half, I can’t remember it.

85 min Iraola plays his final card, unless his players can take this to extra time. He takes Senesi off and sends Daniel Jebbison on, with a note for Cook, presumably containing a change of formation.

84 min McAtee’s first touch is a shot, but it’s a tame one. Then Grealish wiggles his way into another good position, only to pass whne he could have pulled the trigger.

82 min Post! After a good dancing run by Grealish, Gundogan strokes a shot in from the D. That’s his last involvement as he and Kovacic bow out, to be replaced by younger men – Gonzalez and McAtee.

80 min Better from Bournemouth as Kluivert and Scott combine on the left. But when Hill sends in a long throw, Gundogan leads a counter-attack and plays a one-two-three with Marmoush, who has a shot saved.

78 min City miss Haaland for the first time as there’s a game of head tennis in Bournemouth’s box.

76 min Yet another name goes into Stuart Atweell’s book and Kluivert does a spot of manhandling.

72 min Iraola has to do something, so he makes two more substitutions: off go Evanilsen and Christie, on come Alex Scott and Adam Smith. It looks as if there’s a reshuffle up top, with Ouattara now leading the line, Scott at No 10 and Kluivert moving to the right.

72 min The sun is still shining, but the lights are going out on Bournemouth. They’ve barely been there since half-time.

70 min Cook trips Grealish, possibly by mistake, and gets a yellow card.

69 min Jack Grealish is coming on for Phil Foden, who was his England self today, rather than the City superstar who was coming back into form before the international break.

67 min There was a City handball in the build-up, but the VAR decided it was an accident.

65 min O’Reilly lost the ball on the edge of the area but regained it and played a nice little flick to Marmoush, who nutmegged a defender and slotted into the corner. Kepa could have done better, so it’s vindication for Roy Keane as well as for Pep, who had just picked up a yellow card for ironic applause.

City lead! And it’s another O’Reilly assist!

62 min Ryan Christie gets a yellow card for a foul on Kovacic, as City were driving forward.

61 min Yes, Haaland is going off, to be replaced by Omar Marmoush. Meanwhile De Bruyne is sledging Cook, possibly for not putting the ball out. Cook’s team mates spring to his defence. “It’s not their responsibility,” says Lee Dixon. “There’s no way I’d be putting it out.”

60 min As the hour glass turns over, Haaland seems to be telling the bench he can’t continue.

55 min Cook bundles Haaland off the field and into a hoarding, leaving him limping. As the physio come son to administer to him, Iraola sends on his first two subs: Ouattara for Brooks, who was a joy to watch, and and James Hill for Julio Soler, who did OK in the tricky role of Kerkez’s understudy.

52 min Pep started a midfielder at right-back, Nunes, who made the mistake that led to the first goal. How many other managers would have thought the solution was to send on another midfielder at left-back?

50 min O’Reilly was in acres on the left. All he had to do was run forward, send the cross in and watch Haaland slot the ball into the corner.

Haaland redeems himself! And the assist comes from O’Reilly!

46 min Pep sends on a sub, but it’s not one of the wingers – it’s Nico O’Reilly, coming on for Khusanov. He goes to left-back, immediately sets off on the overlap and has a shot, which goes wide.

“Given that they wasted a penalty at 0-0, it’s easy to think that City should be leading,” says Kári Tulinius. “However, given the balance of play, it would be deeply unfair. That said, the part of my brain that has watched City trounce English opposition for years is still preparing for a comeback. On the other hand, they’re just not very good.”

Everything but the “but”.

Imperious is the word. Empires fall.

“Wondering what happened to Ederson,” says Joe Pearson. “In his pomp, he was imperious. Now he is mistake prone and decidedly sketchy on the ball. It’s a puzzler.”

City have had two-thirds of the possession, but Bournemouth have had two-thirds of the fun. Erling Haaland messed up a penalty, allowing Kepa to make a comfortable save. About seven minutes later, Bournemouth’s sparky forwards did what City’s haven’t managed and put together a pentrating move – Brooks with the chipped cross, Kluivert with the scuffed shot, Evanilsen with the poked finish.

Oh, they don’t like to be beside the seaside.

45+1 min Foden again making things happen, feeding Haaland down the right. When City come back to the left, De Bruyne has a shot – and skies it.

45 min There will be one more minute of this half.

43 min De Bruyne to Foden again, but Foden again can’t quite manage the final ball, aimed at Haaland.

40 min Better from City. Foden advances through the middle and slips in De Bruyne, who twists and turns just like old times and hands it back … but Foden’s next pass is not as sharp as his first one.

37 min The first yellow card, which should have gone to Gundogan some time ago, goes to Khusanov for fouling someone 30 yards out. The free kick, a thing of artistry from Brooks, curls past his his team-mates and goes for a corner, which comes to nothing.

36 min Foden tries a flick to De Bruyne which doesn’t quite come off. Iraola takes a note. His pen looks like one of those multicoloured biros that were big in Christmas stockings in the late 20th century.

34 min Bournemouth’s goal, by the way, was the first by a home team in these four quarter-finals.