Mason Mount grabbed the opening goal five minutes after the restart to put the holders in front before Aaron Nemane equalised midway through the second half at Man City’s Academy Stadium.

The return at Stamford Bridge takes place next Wednesday 27 April, with tickets still available to purchase online.

Joe Edwards named an all-England-qualified starting team in Manchester, with three changes from the semi-final second leg victory over Blackburn Rovers. Tammy Abraham missed out with a knock, leaving Ike Ugbo to lead the line up top supported in attack by schoolboy Dujon Sterling, Mount and Isaac Christie-Davies.

Jay Dasilva returned after an injury of his own and joined captain Jake Clarke-Salter, Fikayo Tomori and Trevoh Chalobah in defence, protecting Nathan Baxter in goal. Ruben Sammut and Mukhtar Ali formed the central midfield pairing. City made one change from their semi-final second leg tie at Arsenal.

This was a repeat of last season’s final in England’s premier junior cup competition, with the Blues bidding to win the trophy for the third year in a row. They started brightly with Ugbo bringing an early low save from Daniel Grimshaw before the home goalkeeper gathered a tricky dipping effort from distance from Ali (pictured below).