It's the third time that the Eagles have made it all the way to the showpiece event and, coincidentally, the third time that they will have faced a team from Manchester in their quest for a maiden title.
United have denied them twice in 1990 and 2016, whilst City stand in their way of making it an unwanted treble.
Routine victory for Crystal Palace over Aston Villa
The south Londoners were the first to claim their place in the final after what turned out to be a routine victory over an Aston Villa side that are running out of steam at the wrong time of the season.
A fourth clean sheet in five FA Cup games for Palace is the most of any side in this season's competition, and goals in all five matches is more than any other team in 2024/25.
Eberechi Eze and Ismaila Sarr scored the goals to send Oliver Glasner's side to the final, with two from outside the box the first in an FA Cup semi-final since Chelsea against Tottenham Hotspur in 2017 (Willian and Nemanja Matic).
An interesting fact from the game is that Unai Emery's Villa side dominated possession of the ball to a large extent - 70.2% to Palace's 29.8% - and were also much more accurate on the ball (86.1%).
Their 471 accurate passes is far in excess of the Eagles' 173, and 36 touches in Palace's box as well as 16 shots to nine suggests that the Midlanders should really haved eased into the final, but they were simply unable to make any sort of in roads in an attacking sense throughout the game thanks to the way in which Glasner had set his stall out.
Winning possession in the final third just once in 90 minutes and only two interceptions to Palace's 10 also neatly sums up the lack of contribution from Villa's engine room.
Forest knocked out of their stride
Something that's bound to irk Emery, a manager who holds great stock in ensuring his teams aren't outworked during the course of a game, is the fact that four of his players (Lucas Digne, Pau Torres, John McGinn and Morgan Rogers) didn't attempt a single tackle in the entire time that they were on the pitch.
With a place in a cup final at stake, that's unforgivable.
On Sunday, Nuno Espirito Santo's Nottingham Forest were completely knocked out of their stride thanks to a Rico Lewis goal for Man City in the second minute.
In so doing, Lewis (20y 157d) became the youngest player to score for City at Wembley since Steve MacKenzie in May 1981 (19y 172d in the FA Cup final vs Tottenham).
Previously against the big teams this season in the Premier League, including during a recent 1-0 win over Pep Guardiola's side at the City Ground, Forest have soaked up the pressure and hit the opposition on the break.
That early goal meant any such notion the Tricky Trees had of reverting to type went straight out of the window.
Chris Wood let Nottingham Forest down badly
Hitting the woodwork three times might indicate that the Midlanders had made the running in the game and were just out of luck on the day. The latter is certainly true but it was City who were comfortable throughout.
634 passes was more than double Forest's output, and 67% possession tells its own story.
When Chris Wood - so often the hero for his side - was needed, he let them down badly. So badly in fact that he didn't have a single shot at goal, no touches inside City's box and no final third entries.
Anthony Elanga's substitution offered brief hope for Forest and had he not missed from a few yards out a minute after coming on, it might have been a different game. That shot was his only one in the second half, however, and one of just two touches he had in City's box.
At least, captain, Morgan Gibbs-White put in a shift, his three shots and four touches in the opposition box far exceeding the output of any of his team-mates.
Compare and contrast that though with Omar Marmoush's 10 touches in Forest's box, followed by nine from Savinho and three from full-back Nico O'Reilly and the picture paints itself.
Man City dominant in all areas
Of those that started the game, O'Reilly's 86.8% pass completion stat was the lowest of City's outfield players, whilst just four of Forest's players managed a better result.
It's perhaps in looking at how battle-hardened City were during the game that we also get the answer as to why Forest were completely moribund as an attacking force.
Although Elliot Anderson, Nicolas Dominguez and Gibbs-White were all into double figures in terms of the duels that they contested, and the former pair won six of those, they were unable to capitalise.
O'Reilly and Mateo Kovacic's 13 duels attempted was the joint most from both teams, whilst Matheus Nunes weighed in with 10 and every other City player bar Josko Gvardiol was involved at least twice.
For both Forest and Villa, they'll undoubtedly look back on these games as real opportunities missed, and they'll need to raise themselves in the final four games of the league season to ensure that Champions League football will be played at Villa Park and the City Ground next season.
