Twelve minutes later Manchester City doubled their lead after Gabriel Jesus side-footed the ball past Kiko Femenía and Heurelho Gomes in the Watford goal.

[1] It was Rotherham's heaviest ever FA Cup defeat, but their manager Paul Warne was philosophical: "It was a difficult day but we were playing against a world-class team.

Once again, City dominated their opponents, and although the first half ended goalless, they won 4–1 courtesy of two goals from Foden, and one each from Sané and Mahrez, with Pádraig Amond scoring the consolation for Newport.

[4] In the semi-final, played at Wembley Stadium as a neutral venue, Manchester City faced Premier League side Brighton & Hove Albion.

[6] In the next round Watford played fellow Premier League side Newcastle United away at St James' Park.

Gray, a second-half substitute, then scored the winning goal within two minutes of his introduction, ensuring a 2–1 Watford victory and progression to the semi-final at Wembley.

A header from Matt Doherty and a volley from Raúl Jiménez put Wolves into a 2–0 lead before Gerard Deulofeu reduced the deficit with what BBC reporter Phil McNulty described as "an audacious angled flick" with eleven minutes of the game remaining.

Watford had beaten Manchester City once in the previous seventeen meetings, including a losing streak of ten games going back to 2013.

[15] This meant that City were aiming to become the first club in English football history to win the domestic treble which came into existence with the creation of the League Cup in the 1960–61 season.

He was promoted to the Select Group in 2009 and had previously officiated over Wembley matches including the 2012 FA Community Shield and the 2013 Football League Cup Final.

14,000 tickets were distributed through the "football family", which included volunteers representing County FAs, FA-affiliated leagues, clubs and charities.

Former players Luther Blissett (Watford) and Tony Book (Manchester City) brought out the trophy before the teams were introduced to Prince William, Duke of Cambridge.

[19] Watford left-back José Holebas was sent off on the last day of the Premier League season in a 4–1 home defeat by West Ham United.

[21] The final was also slated to have been the Watford goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes' last professional football match, after he announced his intention to retire at the end of the season.

[21] Manchester City were still without long-term injured Benjamin Mendy but both Fernandinho and De Bruyne were available for selection,[21] the former having recovered from a knee injury while the latter was back from damaging his hamstring.

[19] In the 21st minute, Pereyra passed to Abdoulaye Doucouré in the Manchester City box, whose shot struck Vincent Kompany's arm.

After consultation with the VAR, Friend declined to award a penalty and showed Doucouré the first yellow card of the game for his subsequent protests.

Two minutes later, Sterling was unable to capitalise on a Gomes handling error before Jesus' shot was deflected for a corner by Mariappa.

Bernardo Silva played a ball into a space on the left side of the six-yard box for Jesus who side-footed past Kiko Femenía and Gomes in the Watford goal.

Jesus beat Pereyra in the air and passed to De Bruyne, who took the ball past Gomes and scored from close range.

De Bruyne then shot high and wide in the 70th minute before Sané was brought on for Gündogan and Watford's Hughes was replaced by Tom Cleverley.

Two minutes into injury time, Stones' strike from around 10 yards (9.1 m) was saved by Gomes and Friend blew the final whistle, ending the match with Manchester City winning 6–0.

[25] Manchester City became the first English men's team to win a domestic treble, having already won the EFL Cup and Premier League that season.

[30] Winning the FA Cup meant that Manchester City qualified to play Liverpool, the Premier League runners-up, in the Community Shield in August which they won on penalties after a 1–1 draw.