Mikel, Moses lose FA Cup chase •Three Eaglets fail MRI test

Goals from Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero sent Manchester City into an FA Cup final and dashed the hopes of Nigeria’s Mikel Obi and Victor Moses. Both players were so hopeful that they could win the English cup with Chelsea to add to the African cup they won in February.

City will now play the final against Wigan Athletic after they beat holders Chelsea 2-1 at Wembley on Sunday. The 2011 winners will return on May 11 after they held off a strong fightback from a Chelsea side playing their sixth game in 16 days.

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On Saturday, Mikel had told the media he was confident that the Stamford Bridge team would beat the billionaire opponents in the Sunday clash. After their quarter final win over Middlesbrough Moses rallied his teammates to do everything possible to win retain the trophy they won last year.

“We need to maintain the tempo and win this cup. With the Premier League gone, we can have a better season by winning the FA Cup and it is possible,” Moses had said.

Frenchman Nasri gave City, who also beat Chelsea to win the season-opening Community Shield, a lead they more than deserved when he fired home after 35 minutes and Argentine Aguero headed a second two minutes into the second half.

Demba Ba’s acrobatic volley on 65 minutes inspired a Chelsea revival but City held their nerve.

“For a while it was too comfortable, it was a wake-up call,” City captain Vincent Kompany told ITV of Ba’s goal.

“The pitch is huge, a lot of times it is you against your man and you never know what can happen. But in the end I thought we defended really well and when it mattered we were there and we did a great job.

“We never doubted about the fact that we wanted to win trophies, this was an important game and the most important game is going to be the final against Wigan, that’s what we are looking forward too.”

Premier League strugglers Wigan overcame Championship (second division) Millwall 2-0 at Wembley on Saturday in a match marred by fighting among the London club’s supporters.

Reports from Morocco, venue of the African U-17 Championship late Saturday said that three players of the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria failed the MRI test conducted by the Confederation of African Football on all the players featuring in the competition.

The MRI test conducted on Friday showed that two Nigerian defenders and a striker were allegedly above the age limit for the competition. The affected players are Wilfred Ndidi (Nath FC, Lagos), Ibrahim Abdullahi (Sardauna Academy, Kano) and Emmanuel Asadu (Amuneke Academy).

CAF has excluded the players from participating in the competition which kicked off on Saturday. Their omission from the tournament now reduced the Golden Eaglets players to 18 players.