[NoSkillz]

Sat. April 19, 2025

FA Cup Semi Final
Dover (2nd in Premier League) vs. Manchester City (4th in Premier League)
Wembley, London, England

Betting Odds: Dover: 5-4 (Favourites) Draw: N/A Manchester City: 7-4
Past Meetings: 5W 3D 8L

This is our fourth matchup against City already this year, with a Community Shield win, a league win away and a thrilling 3-3 draw at Crabble in January. Jelle Hoegee continues to be the main man up front for City, with 33 goals from 40 matches. City are healthy and should field a full strength side today.

Against my better judgement, I’m only making four changes to our lineup after the disastrous 8-1 loss to OM a few days ago. Ingo Wilke is in goal for Perez, captain Salim Loucif is back from his one game suspension and replaces young Emerson and Gianluca Bolis is at MR in place of Graham Allan. Also, our leading scorer Andy Broomes is back into the lineup in place of Zoltan Bardi. We’re slight favourites today and will go with our control mentality.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - I. Wilke
D - Renato Gaucho, C. Contreras, R. Hamon, S. Loucif
M - M. Pedersen, B. Raab, Jose, G. Bolis
S - A. Broomes, Chiquinho
Bench - Rafinha, S. Nasri, E. Harvey, N. Cairney, F. Hernandez, G. Allan, Z. Bardi

Wow! City DO NOT start Hoegee up front and instead go with Frenchman Ryan Bonin! Crazy. Ahh, upon further inspection, Hoegee is suspended for the next two games due to piling up 15 yellow cards (!) this year. Antonio is in goal. These guys are still ultra-dangerous. Lets do it for our supporters today!

HALFTIME - Well, after giving up five goals in the first half in our last game, perhaps it’s a small victory to get to the half scoreless in this one. It’s been a physical, intense but clean game so far. We are dominating possession, holding a whopping 64% of the ball and have a 10-4 shot lead but City have two on target and we have a big fat zero. We need to be better with our shot selection.

73’ - Still nothing. Coming close but can’t get one past Antonio. I take out Jose and bring in Neil Cairney.

FULLTIME - Ugh. Sheer domination but we just can’t score. 62% possession and a 19-4 (2-2 on target) shot advantage. These guys are slow playing us and want to get to a shootout. I tell the team we only need one goal and that they can get it!

My goodness. City are in a 4-2-1-2-1 with two defensive mids right now. Just holding on for dear life!

EXTRA TIME - We simply DOMINATE extra time and get multiple HUGE chances but Antonio is standing on his head. We’re off to PENALTIES! Just before the whistle, I’m able to get Zoltan Bardi in the lineup in place of defender Rayane Hamon, so that gives me one more lethal shooter.

PENALTIES -

MAN CITY - Pjanic is up for City and SCORES MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 0-1
DOVER - Benedikt Raab is up for us and it’s IN! DOVER GOAL 1-1
MAN CITY - It’s Bottone for City and he easily scores. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 1-2
DOVER - Neil Cairney is up and he SCORES! DOVER GOAL 2-2
MAN CITY - Kadlec is up next and he scores. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 2-3
DOVER - Here’s Chiquinho and he is STOPPED. Oh my god.
MAN CITY - Manuel Brito is up and his shot is OFF THE CROSSBAR! We’re still alive!!!
DOVER - Andy Broomes is up and he SCORES! DOVER GOAL 3-3
MANCHESTER CITY - It’s Brands next and his shot is off Wilke and IN. Crap. MANCHESTER CITY GOAL 3-4
DOVER - Zoltan Bardi, just on the pitch, NEEDS to score to keep us alive. It’s a ROCKET into the top corner!!! DOVER GOAL 4-4
MANCHESTER CITY - Here’s Spanoudakis. His shot is OVER THE NET!
DOVER - Mads Pedersen is up and we can win it with a goal. You GOT TO BE KIDDING. He’s STOPPED by ANTONIO! This is TENSE!
MANCHESTER CITY - Their captain Abbes is up. He shoots it right down the middle and Wilke holds his ground and MAKES THE SAVE!
DOVER - Here is Gianluca Bolis, who was exhausted but I kept on just in case we went to penalties. And he REWARDS MY FAITH AND SCORES!!! DOVER GOAL 5-4

WOOO! We’re on to the FA Cup final!!

Dover 0 - 0 Manchester City (Dover Win 5-4 on Penalties)
Goals -
Assists -
Man of the Match - Antonio (Manchester City GK - 8.5)
Other Dover Notables - Salim Loucif (7.4), Rayane Hamon (7.6), Claudio Contreras (7.3), Renato Gaucho (7.5), Mads Pedersen (7.0)
Attendance - 90,000 (Sell-Out)

The match itself was ALL DOVER but Antonio, the City GK was truly sensational. We held 60% of the ball and an outrageous 26-5 (6-2 on target) shot advantage.

-- This is our first ever FA Cup final! It really is the only competition we haven’t won so I’ll be going all out in that game.

-- We earn £918,000 for winning the semi-final.

-- And in a bit of a shocker, our opponent will be Tottenham, as they knock off Manchester United 2-1 in the other semi final. Spurs currently are sixth in the league.



Dover Injury Update

-- Arsene Bamba (sprained ankle) is nearing a return to full fitness. Our only other injury is Paul Moses, who should be resuming training in the next couple weeks but it would likely be pushing it if I decided to play him at any point - there’s a chance he’d be ready to come on as a sub in that FA Cup final but I doubt it’s worth the risk after he’s torn the same calf muscle twice this year.



Suspension News

-- Claudio Contreras sees his one game European suspension increased to THREE GAMES after his horror tackle in the OM massacre. Not a surprise. Thankfully, that won’t take effect until next year’s competition…hopefully we’re in the Champions League again!



Premier League Update

-- Spurs continue to roll, destroying Arsenal 5-0 in midweek Premier League action.

-- And that Arsenal loss is a big one, as we mathematically are guaranteed to be in the Champions League once again in 2025/26!



Next Up

-- We face mid-table side Aston Villa in an away match in Premier League play.