Crystal Palace vs Man City FA Cup Final Betting Tips and Predictions

Our betting expert has three betting tips for the FA Cup final between Manchester City and Crystal Palace on Saturday (kick-off 4.30pm). Scroll down for the analysis behind his selections.

By Luke Seychell

• Crystal Palace to lift the trophy @ 2/1 with Sky Bet
• Eberechi Eze anytime scorer @ 3/1 with Paddy Power
• BetBuilder: Over 2 Goals/Stefan Ortega 3+ Saves/Erling Haaland Over 0.5 Headed Shots on Target @ 15/2 with bet365

Glasner glee as Palace to make it third time lucky

Twice before Crystal Palace have reached the FA Cup final, twice before they have lost, both times against Manchester opposition.

This Saturday could well be the time to back them to make it third time lucky by seeing off Man City at Wembley.

They have a golden opportunity to exorcise the ghosts of those losses at the hands of Man Utd in 1990 and 2016.

This is a good City team, of that there is no question, but it’s not a great Citizens team.

Last season Palace finished a distant 42 points behind City in the Premier League. This season, with two games left, that gulf has been scythed to just 16.

City have lost nine times in the league – that’s only two fewer than Palace.

City did thrash Palace 5-2 last month but that was at The Etihad and this has been the prize the Eagles have been pursuing.

And critically, while Glasner knows that City will boss possession and create chances he has a front three in Ebe Eze, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta who can cut any team to ribbons on the counter.

This showpiece promises to be far closer than the odds would have you believe and that has to make the London upstarts a spot of value.

• FA Cup Final Tip 1: Crystal Palace to Lift the Trophy @ 2/1 with Sky Bet

On-song Eze can maintain hot streak at Pep’s expense

Palace have hit form at the right time, especially in this competition, with sublime 3-0 wins over Fulham and Aston Villa in the last two rounds.

And no player is in hotter goalscoring form than Ebe Eze, the England international forward.

Eze warmed up for Wembley with both goals in Palace’s impressive 2-0 win at Tottenham on Sunday and has now scored in each of his last four appearances.

That’s 13 goals for club and country this season and he is a big price to score against City.

• FA Cup Final Tip 2: Eberechi Eze anytime scorer @ 3/1 with Paddy Power

Ortega to be busy in final thriller

Only a month has passed since City and Palace met in the Premier League at The Etihad, a match the deposed champs won 5-2.

Seven goals scored and while that was unusual, it wasn’t freakishly so.

Four league meetings between these sides over the past two seasons have never yielded fewer than four goals with both sides scoring at least twice in all four of those fixtures.

This is a fixture that has become synonymous with goals so make over two goals the bedrock of a three-leg Bet Builder which works out at 15/2.

If there are goals then there are chances. And if there are chances then there are busy keepers.

Stefan Ortega is Pep Guardiola’s FA Cup keeper and should start at Wembley where Palace can keep him honest by forcing him into at least three saves.

The other name pretty much guaranteed a start is Erling Haaland even though City didn’t look great with him leading the line at Southampton in Saturday’s 0-0 draw.

You don’t drop your 30-goal top scorer, though, and given that only Forest’s Chris Wood has scored more headers than Haaland this term, back the Norwegian to get at least one header on target.

• FA Cup Final Tip 3: BetBuilder: Over 2 Goals/Stefan Ortega 3+ Saves/Erling Haaland Over 0.5 Headed Shots on Target @ 15/2 with bet365