Demoted to the bench, the Spaniard came on to provide a thing of beauty for his first goal and the winner in extra time to beat Wolves 3-2 in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley

As a manager you know it is definitely and incontrovertibly your day when you are faced with one major selection decision, get it demonstrably wrong and then win the game because of it. Javi Gracia’s first full season at Watford is going so well that even his mistakes work out.

Troy Deeney, Watford’s captain and frequently their inspiration, is known for giving occasional sermons about cojones, and once again proved his qualifications for delivering them by rocketing home the 94th-minute penalty that completed his team’s unlikely comeback from two goals down. Gerard Deulofeu, the slight, wispy Spaniard who scored their other two goals, is not so much the chest-thumping, fist-pumping type, but this was the story of the mouse that roared.

Gerard Deulofeu double takes Watford into Cup final after extra-time thriller Read more

As that equaliser went in and his teammates sprinted towards the corner flag with the scorer, Deulofeu alone took the shortest route towards the Watford fans, leapt up on an advertising hoarding and screamed. The match had been saved and so he would set about winning it.

After the match Deulofeu was unequivocal: when he found out that he was not starting this game he had been furious. The Spaniard had been punished for an ineffective display against Fulham in midweek with a seat on the bench while Andre Gray, who came on at half-time to decide that game in the Hornets’ favour, took his place in the starting line-up.

He watched from the sidelines as Deeney twice carved out wonderful goalscoring opportunities which Gray spurned and as Wolves took two of their own for an apparently decisive lead. With only a little bit of effort this entire period, the 66 minutes that preceded Deulofeu’s arrival, can be seen as little more than an extended motivational exercise, 22 players and a referee running around a pitch in such a way as massively to fire up a single Spanish spectator.

Matt Doherty opened the scoring in the 36th minute, heading in Diogo Jota’s cross after a short corner. A little under half an hour of playing time later Raúl Jiménez doubled his side’s advantage with a VAR-endorsed, borderline offside but indisputably brilliant chest-down-and-volley after a short free-kick. That, right there, is what £30m buys you. Roared on by thousands of poncho-clad, sombrero-shaded supporters the Mexican pulled on a novelty mask and celebrated a moment that at the time felt very close to decisive.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Deulofeu celebrates Troy Deeney’s penalty. Photograph: Mark Leech/Offside/Getty Images

But this was not destined to be a straightforward victory. These two teams, separated in the league table by a single point and a goal difference of one, with their varying shades of golden replica kits providing the brightness that a thick blanket of ash-grey cloud prevented the sun from delivering, were pulled apart as Wolves took and stretched their lead and then, as if attached by elastic, snapped back together again.

It became, in the end, a truly compelling contest between well-matched, high-quality teams. It was tempting to deduce that games without any of the Premier League’s top six make for considerably more interesting viewing than games involving one of them, though the last such FA Cup semi-final, between Watford and Crystal Palace in 2016, had been much less engrossing. The key difference was that neither of those sides were very good – Watford had won one of their nine previous league matches, Palace one in 18 – while the key moments of this contest were sensational.

Deulofeu’s first goal, 13 minutes after coming on, was an act of defiance and a thing of beauty, the Spaniard collecting the ball in the area after Romain Saïss headed down a José Holebas long throw, looking up, assessing his options, deciding none of them amounted to much and then flicking his ankle like a cricketing spinner turns his wrist to impart dip and curl on the ball and transform a situation from which little seemed possible into a large stride towards glory.

The Fiver: sign up and get our daily football email.

He had little to do with the equaliser, Leander Dendoncker catching Deeney in the area to concede the penalty, but 15 minutes into extra time he conjured the winner, exchanging passes with Gray, sprinting past Conor Coady and rolling the ball just beyond the reach of John Ruddy’s right boot. Wolves, with the substitute Adama Traoré frightening his opponents with his pace if not his delivery, could not provide another plot twist and the day was destined to be decided by the gentle, brutal contribution of Watford’s spurned Spaniard, and the motivational masterstroke of a manager who at present can do no wrong.