FA Youth Cup final: Liverpool win ‘mini title race’ with penalty triumph over Manchester City

If there was something symbolic about the two dominant forces of the English football season contesting the FA Youth Cup final, then the outcome of this tykes’ title race bodes well for Liverpool.

Manchester City were four minutes away from their first triumph in this competition since 2008, having lost three of the previous four finals. Nabil Touaizi’s goal on the cusp of half time seemed likely to be enough.

It would have been, if not for Bobby Duncan - the cousin of one Steven Gerrard. There were echoes of his relative’s late intervention in the 2006 FA Cup final, with an equaliser from range at the death to set up a penalty shoot-out victory.

Granted, Duncan’s strike was not quite as sweet as Gerrard’s at the Millennium Stadium and was helped in by a goalkeeping error. Louie Moulden failed to atone for his mistake in the shoot-out. Team-mate Cole Palmer was the unlucky one to miss, striking the upright.

The story of the night though was Duncan, a City prospect until two summers ago, when a contractual dispute saw him spend a year in limbo training with Wigan Athletic. He signed for his boyhood club last year and that he should be the one to deny City seemed written.

This was an entertaining final. Both sides showed an impressive commitment to pressing high and playing out from the back, despite all the attendant risks of such an approach. City enjoyed a lot of possession in the opening 45 minutes, while the best opportunities came from Liverpool’s neat footwork and sharp counters.

And yet, just as the first half was drawing to a close, City struck. Adrian Bernabé, a left winger picked from the ranks of Barcelona’s La Masia, was their main attacking outlet and sent a teasing low cross crossing low to the near post for Touaizi to finish.

It was a type of goal regularly scored by City’s senior side over the road at the Etihad Stadium and Pep Guardiola, who was in attendance alongside his members of his coaching staff, will surely have been pleased to see evidence that his ideas are trickling down through this club.

Some members of this City side have already graced the fringes of Guardiola’s first team, while centre-half Eric Garcia impressed during the triumphant EFL Cup run. Garcia would be forced off through injury in the opening stage of the second half here, but City initially coped well with the loss of their captain.

Their opponents, meanwhile, struggled to find the space on the break that they had enjoyed in the first half. Gradually, they became the ones stifled by long spells of sterile possession and City began to threaten on the break. Ben Knight came close to settling the contest late on, with two goal-bound efforts blocked in quick succession.

Liverpool were not done yet, though. Duncan scored a 90th-minute winner in the league fixture between these two sides in October. He struck four minutes earlier this time, though he owed much to the loose hands of Moulden. The City goalkeeper was right behind his speculative 25-yard effort until a late swerve took it through his grasp.

Both sides threatened in extra time, though tired legs were taking their toll. Tommy Doyle, the influential City playmaker whose grandfathers Mike Doyle and Glyn Pardoe both represented the club, went close in the dying minutes, dragging a long-range effort wide of the post. There would have to be penalties.

And after Palmer’s miss from the spot, when Paul Glatzel converted the winning kick, the City players slumped the ground in unison. Several broke into tears. A spot-kick competition was a cruel way to decide this contest, one which was just as evenly-matched as the one at the top of the Premier League table.