Manchester City v Sheffield United: FA Cup semi-final – live

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13 min: Grealish is seeing quite a bit of the ball out on the left. Probe, dribble, pass, probe. He slips back to Gomez, who crosses and wins a corner. Mahrez takes it long. Haaland fights for a header at the far stick but Egan wins this particular duel, albeit at the expense of a second corner. United deal with that one as well.

11 min: Akanji attempts to find Haaland down the middle with a long rake, but Egan reads the danger, stepping in to lash clear.

9 min: Despite that one big chance and the smaller half-chance for Sheffield United, it’s Manchester City dominating the early possession as you’d expect. Grealish and Gomez attempt to combine down the left but are forced to turn tail. Gundogan tries something on the other flank but Robinson isn’t letting him into the box. The pattern of this match is probably set.

7 min: Foderingham launches a long free kick. Jebbison flicks on. Ndiaye chases after the ball down the inside-right channel, and shoots wide from a tight angle. Akanji did well to get across and narrow the angle. But this is a determined start by United. The small margins, huh? Somewhere in the multiverse, the underdogs are two goals up!

Sheffield United's Iliman Ndiaye (right) shoots wide. Photograph: Glyn Kirk/AFP/Getty Images

5 min: That early burst of action has got Wembley on a rolling boil. A wonderful noise. City try to calm things down with a little bit of possession.

3 min: Well that was breathless. More, please, both teams!

1 min 26 sec: Egan flicks the corner on to Ndiaye, free on the left-hand corner of the six-yard box. He’s got to score, but his shot, aimed for the bottom right, is palmed away by Ortega. Wow!

52 seconds: But then United go up the other end, Baldock winning a corner off Gomes down the right. And from that …

18 seconds: Haaland very nearly gets in ahead of Robinson, but the ball is steered back to Foderingham. What a start that could have been!

Sheffield United get the ball rolling. A huge cheer of anticipation rings around Wembley.

The teams are out! Manchester City wear sky blue, Sheffield United their red and white stripes. Wembley bouncing, the sun streaming down, a wonderful atmosphere. A particularly lusty rendition of that glorious paean to bitter, fags and snuff, The Greasy Chip Butty Song. City fans meanwhile giving as good as they’re getting. An FA Cup semi-final, right here! We’ll be off in a couple of shakes.

Pep talks to ITV. “It is the fourth time in a row we are here … we have lost the previous three … hopefully we can perform well today and reach the final … this is a special day at Wembley for supporters of both teams … it’s a beautiful sunny day … there is no more argument for us to do it … Sheffield United have the same style they had in the Premier League with Chris Wilder … they are really good … they’re a Premier League team, almost ready … semi-finals are special for both teams.”

Yes logo. Here’s the Manchester City crest as it was in the 1970s, spotted this afternoon on a random punter’s shirt down Wembley Way. It’s the best-looking rendition, accept no substitutes.

A shirt. Photograph: Alex Pantling/The FA/Getty Images

In the interests of balance, here are some Sheffield United supporters en route to the big game. Those shirts left and right giving off some serious 1993 semi-final vibes.

Hey, does anybody remember Spangles Alan Cork? Photograph: Alex Pantling/The FA/Getty Images

Sheffield United manager Paul Heckingbottom speaks to ITV. “We want to enjoy the day … we’re in this competition alongside an exciting league competition as well, but we’ve tried to keep the two separate … we’ve come this far … we know how big the challenge is … we’re playing against a top-class team and a top-class manager … we know how hungry they’re going to be with what they’re chasing … but there’s no pressure on us today … it’s a great day for the players, the families, our supporters … we’re just determined to enjoy the game and we’ll be back to the day job on Wednesday night … we are not naive enough to think we can win this game with 11 players … our bench has to be big … we’re going to have to have moments without the ball that we’ll have to endure … but likewise we want to be big when we do have the ball … each of our attacking players need to pose their own threats … you have to acknowledge [Erling Haaland] is a world-class striker who lives and breathes goals … but with that comes a structure to how he wants to play … it’s one thing spotting it but another dealing with it! … we know where we will have to be cute and cautious … but we can’t put all our thoughts and energies into stopping one player … we’re going to have a big performance against every player.”

Manchester City make six changes to their starting XI in the wake of the 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich. Stefan Ortega, Kyle Walker, Sergio Gomez, Aymeric Laporte, Riyad Mahrez and Julian Alvarez come in; Ederson, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Kevin De Bruyne and Rodri drop to the bench, while Nathan Ake is injured. Erling Haaland starts the match looking for goal number 49 of the season, after which anything is possible.

Sheffield United are coming off the back of a 1-0 win over Bristol City, and make three changes to their starting XI. Wes Foderingham replaces Adam Davies in goal, Daniel Jebbison leads the line in place of Oli McBurnie, and Oliver Norwood replaces Tommy Doyle, who is on loan from City and unable to play against his parent club. James McAtee, also a City loanee, sits this one out as well. The law, as administered by the Football Association, is an ass. (Joao Cancelo, to pluck an example from the ether, played for Bayern against City in Uefa’s Champions League on Wednesday night in exactly the same circumstances.)

The teams

Manchester City: Ortega, Walker, Akanji, Laporte, Gomez, Gundogan, Silva, Mahrez, Alvarez, Grealish, Haaland.
Subs: Ederson, Dias, Phillips, Stones, Rodrigo, De Bruyne, Foden, Palmer, Lewis.

Sheffield United: Foderingham, Baldock, Ahmedhodzic, Egan, Robinson, Lowe, Norwood, Berge, Fleck, Ndiaye, Jebbison.
Subs: Davies, Basham, Clark, Bogle, Coulibaly, Arblaster, Brooks, Sharp, McBurnie.

Preamble

Manchester City have won all four of their most recent encounters with Sheffield United, there’s little surprise in that. But none of those victories in the Premier League between 2019 and 2021 were Cityesque routs: 2-0, 1-0, 1-0, 1-0. Meanwhile the last time the clubs met in the FA Cup, this happened:

OK, so this is the best we can do to convince ourselves that the Blades have a puncher’s chance against Pep Guardiola’s treble-chasing team this afternoon. It’s not that the Championship promotion hopefuls aren’t in good nick: they’ve won six of their last seven games, and have already seen off Tottenham Hotspur earlier in their FA Cup run. It’s just that there’s good nick, and then there’s good nick: City have won ten of their last 11 matches, to the aggregate score of 37-4, and the other game was a 1-1 draw in which they were the bosses of Bayern Munich on their own patch. Can an unstoppable juggernaut be elegant? Yes, yes it can.

Wigan Athletic proved that City can be shocked back in 2018. United themselves will point to that aforementioned defeat of Spurs, as well as the last-minute goal at Wrexham that kept them in the competition back in January, a sign perhaps that their name is on the famous old trophy for the first time since 1925. City however want that treble, and the manner in which Bernardo Silva was talking after dealing with Bayern on Wednesday night suggests they’re not in the mood to let anyone get in their way. Will City take one step closer to their first FA Cup since 2019? Can United pull off a seismic shock and reach their first final since 1936? We’ll find out soon enough, after extra time and penalties if necessary. Kick-off at Wembley is at 4.45pm BST. It’s on!