It would be easy to make this spine-tingling night all about a setback for Jose Mourinho.
Easy to make it about how his team’s sloppiness raised further questions of just how deep the quality runs in this Manchester United squad.
Easy to make it about doubts whether, despite his strike cancelling out Joe Bryan’s beautiful opener, Zlatan Ibrahimovic can scale magisterial heights again.
Easy to make it about the wisdom of Jose’s policy of sticking with Sergio Romero, who was blameless for Bryan’s cracker, not obviously at fault for Korey Smith’s dramatic late winner, but cut an uncertain figure throughout.
Easy to make it about Paul Pogba’s eccentric and, ultimately, fairly ineffective performance.
But that would be doing Bristol City and Lee Johnson the gravest disservice.
When Smith found space behind United’s defence, turned and struck the semi-final slot-sealer beneath Romero, Johnson was off down the touchline, Mourinho-style.
A year ago, a lot of these supporters wanted him out, now he can do no wrong.
Johnson’s Robins defended in numbers and were not exactly cavalier, but attacked their Premier League opposition at every opportunity.
They were neat but vibrant, organised but expressive, their display encapsulated in Bryan’s outstanding individual contribution.
After a balanced first half, he stepped forward with a strike of stunning purity.
The pass from Marlon Pack to set Bryan free was sweet, the hit from an angle far sweeter. It would even beaten David De Gea.
But his beautiful hit was complemented by a saving tackle at the other end and underpinned by his non-stop, hard running.
United often looked more threatening – Ibrahimovic and Marcus Rashford hitting the goal-frame, and City keeper Luke Steele denying substitute Romelu Lukaku a couple of times – but they were just a little more ponderous than Johnson’s team.
And the weightiest compliment you can give the Robins is that their tempo and approach was unaffected after Ibrahimovic had quickly equalised.
It would have been understandable if they had been affected by their grievance with ref Mike Dean for awarding the free-kick after a Pogba tumble.
It would have been understandable if heads had been lowered by a low Zlatan strike that found a fault in the wall and Steele’s bottom corner.
But they simply carried on doing what they had been doing so effectively up to that point. Defended diligently, attacked with purpose.
With Lukaku on for an undercooked Ibrahimovic, you expected United to carry more goal threat in the closing stages and, despite an unsatisfactory cameo from another substitute, Henrikh Mkhitaryan, they did. But Steele, who does not start in the Championship side, made sure he could say he did more than his part in a brilliant performance.
As opportunities went begging at both ends, the keeper looked destined to play an even bigger role in proceedings, but that did not account for his team-mates’ adventure.
No hanging on for extra-time and the long-range hope of a penalty shootout, they knew they could hurt United.
Maybe the City players knew, as Mourinho later intimated, that, quite simply, they wanted it more.
And when Smith’s strike sparked delirium, they got it.
Mourinho said the victors “Fought like it was the game of their lives, which probably it was”.
But to put it down solely to that would be another disservice to City, who mixed fight with technical excellence, determination with talent.
They got no more than they deserved. Never mind a setback for Jose, bravo Bristol City.