WEMBLEY — The ball ricocheted off Ismaila Sarr, wrong-footing Stefan Ortega, and Daniel Munoz stole in to toe-poke the ball over the goal line.
The Crystal Palace fans erupted. The decibel counter on the smartphone next to me showed 115.
A second goal to put Palace two ahead in the FA Cup final, with only 30 minutes to play. Surely enough to secure their first FA Cup trophy, at the third time of trying.
And then disaster. A VAR check. An offside. Sarr was beyond the last defender when the ball struck him.
Despite all that came before and everything afterwards, it was the loudest moment of an historic event. Perhaps because the ball went in right in front of them. Perhaps thinking it meant the wait was over.
For context: 110dB is the average pain threshold for unprotected ears, 115 is the volume of a power drill obliterating concrete or a rock concert, or a lion roaring if, as inadvisable as it would be, you’re stood next to it.
And now it’s the volume of 30,000 Eagles celebrating an offside goal in an FA Cup final.
From the pre-match show, where a brass band played the instrumental to The Streets’ Turn the Page while a DJ spun drum and bass over them, increasing tempo, flames bursting around the stadium until your head felt like imploding, to Marc Guehi and Joel Ward lifting the trophy from the balcony (112dB), the final was a festival of deafening, mostly Crystal Palace-generated sound.
Seconds before kick-off, they had unfurled a tifo behind a goal that stretched the width of the pitch declaring: “Wembley will shake… and it will be beautiful.”
And how it shook. And how it was beautiful.
"The Eagles have landed."
The moment Crystal Palace won the FA Cup
#FACup pic.twitter.com/olWqyz94NS
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 17, 2025
The first 10 minutes the Palace fans – far out-noising their counterparts at the other end of the stadium throughout – bubbled away at a steady mid-80s, a level barely dropped below for 90 minutes plus an extra 10 for stoppage time.
The scale tipped 112 for Palace’s opening goal. Maybe it was fractionally lower than Munoz’s offside because it was scored at the far end of the pitch. Possibly it took them by surprise: Eberechi Eze finishing a sweeping breakaway goal was Palace’s first shot in 16 minutes during which they’d had 15.9 percent possession, and an xG of 0.1.
And there was louder to come than the game’s only goal.
The volume dropped to 80dB while fans waited anxiously for VAR to check if City had won a penalty – awarded by referee Stuart Attwell in the 35th minute for Tyrick Mitchell’s slide tackle on Bernardo Silva.
It rose back into the high 80s as they tried to put Omar Marmoush, shooting towards them, off his stride. Then rocketed to 114 when Dean Henderson pulled of a stunning double save, diving right to keep out Marmoush’s effort then clutching Erling Haaland’s rebound.
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Powered by a heart of white t-shirted fans, some waving Palace Ultras scarves, right in the middle of the red and blue Palace end, they rode out a wave of 86, 87, 88 as the half drew to a close.
Wembley officials started bursting thousands of red and blue balloons released in the Palace end, the sound punctured half-time.
Tension increased in the second half – and so did the noise, frequently tipping into the 90s in those rare but frightening Palace breaks. Munoz bombing up the right. Jean-Philippe Mateta chasing lost causes. Eze looking for holes in a leaky defence.
It reached the mid-90s when Henderson was at full stretch to keep out Jeremy Doku’s dangerous curler and Kevin De Bruyne skied a promising rebound.
It hit 90 when the Palace fans chanted “We forgot that you were here” to the bewildered City fans shielding their eyes at the other end.
SAVED BY HENDERSON
Omar Marmoush misses from the spot
#FACup pic.twitter.com/PfvBowkW6V
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) May 17, 2025
The feverish sound spilled into the technical areas, where Palace coach Paddy McCarthy squared up to City’s head of medicine Max Sala.
It was regularly in the mid-90s, midway through the second half, as they kept a steady pulse of noise coming. Ninety-one when Daichi Kamada controlled the ball with his chest on the edge of City’s penalty area then struck the ball over. One hundred when Munoz curled a shot beyond the left post. It wasn’t even close. It didn’t even matter.
Someone in the Palace end snuck in a drum and they beat out a steady tempo for the 10 added minutes, the crowd pumped and jumping in unison.
They cheered at 101 as shots from Doku and De Bruyne rolled aimlessly wide, at 108 as Phil Foden overhit a cross that bounced out of play. The jeers and whistles reached 90 as City mounted one final attack.
At the final whistle, it was 113.
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