MACCLESFIELD, England (AP) — Minnow Macclesfield defeats titleholder. crystal palace In one of the biggest upsets in FA Cup history on Saturday, they won 2-1 and progressed to the fourth round.
maclesfield The team, who play in the sixth tier of English football, five levels below their Premier League opponents, took the lead in the 43rd minute when captain Paul Dawson headed in Luke Duffy’s cross.
Isaac Buckley-Ricketts made it 2-0 in the 60th innings, to cheers.
After some scuffle in the penalty area, the ball passed to Manchester City youth Buckley-Ricketts, who deftly clipped the ball with the outside of his right foot and past goalkeeper Walter Benitez.
Macclesfield manager John Rooney told the BBC: “It’s unbelievable. I never thought I’d be in this position.” “From the first moment we were great. I thought we deserved to win. I couldn’t be more proud of our players.”
Rooney started and ended his playing career at the club as a midfielder, but is still in his first season as a coach. He is the younger brother of former England international and Manchester United star Wayne Rooney.
Jeremy Pinot curled a last-minute free-kick over the wall and left Macclesfield heading into six tense minutes of stoppage time with the home fans chanting “Silkman! Silkman!” — Club nickname.
Macclesfield held out against the Palace side, but a miserable afternoon was capped off by a foul throw by American central defender Chris Richards towards the end of stoppage time, giving the ball back to Macclesfield.
As Dawson and Duffy were carried into the air, fans celebrated by sprinting onto the field at Moss Rose, a modest 5,900-capacity stadium in northwest England, at the final whistle.
The FA Cup has a long history of dramatic knockouts and upsets, including when non-league Hereford beat Newcastle 2-1 in a third-round replay of 1972, and when underdogs Palace defeated heavy favorites Liverpool 4-3 in the 1990 semi-final.
Friday night, upstairs Wrexham beat Nottingham Forest in the Premier LeagueAnd now, the magic of the FA Cup has graced Macclesfield.
“I didn’t think there was a chance of that happening, but there’s a little bit of hope that something might happen that day,” Rooney said.
Dawson said Macclesfield “means the world to me” and called the win “an immense achievement”.
Palace manager Oliver Glasner said there was “no explanation” for what he had just seen.
“You don’t need tactics. You don’t need a manager in this kind of match,” he told the BBC. “If you show what you’re capable of and have a little bit of pride, you can perform differently. But today I missed everything.
“We deserved to lose.”
Palace captain Marc Guehy walked over to speak to his team’s fans on the road after the defeat.
Other matches
In a Premier League all-game draw, the match ended 1-1 after extra time, with Sunderland defeating Everton on penalties.
Enzo Le Fe’s goal put Sunderland ahead in the first half, and fellow midfielder James Garner equalized for the hosts Everton in the 89th minute.
Norwegian forward Jorgen Strand Larsen scored a hat-trick as Premier League strugglers Wolves defeated fourth-tier Shrewsbury 6-1. Leicester, the 2021 FA Cup winners and currently playing in the second division, defeated fourth division Cheltenham 2-0.
A top-level clash looms
In the third round later on Saturday, seven-time FA Cup winners Manchester City (last season’s runners-up) faced third-tier Exeter, Newcastle hosted Bournemouth and Tottenham faced Aston Villa in all Premier League games.
Eight-time champions Chelsea also visited second-tier Charlton in their final match.
Semenyo says goodbye
Bournemouth sell Ghana forward Antoine Semenyo joins City On Friday, he signed a deal reportedly worth 65 million pounds ($87 million).
He thanked Bournemouth fans “for all the memories” in a full-page ad in the Bournemouth Echo.
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