Manchester City beat Bournemouth 2-1 to reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the seventh year in a row, with Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush scoring after Evanilson gave the Cherries the lead
Pep Guardiola has claimed his Manchester City side has been misunderstood, with the Spaniard keen to highlight a remarkable achievement after they beat Bournemouth 2-1 in their FA Cup quarter-final clash.
City came from behind after Evanilson put Bournemouth in front, with Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush scoring second-half goals to set up a semi-final clash with Nottingham Forest. It is the seventh time in a row that City have reached the semi-finals and Guardiola brought up that fact in an awkward post-match interview with ITV.
“In my career as a manager, all the people say, ‘how good they play, how good they play’. No, no, no – how much we run, how much we fight, and this season in many games it happens,” Guardiola said.
“Seven times in a row, semi-finals of the FA Cup. I’m sorry to tell you but this is outstanding. That means this generation of players, what they have done these many years, it isn’t easy to come here, one of the toughest away places to come because they play with intensity and the pressing.
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“I said at half-time, you have the game in your hands, so keep going. I’m really pleased to reach the semi-final again. In November, we came here with flip-flops, we were on holiday.
“If you don’t compete, if you are not doing what you have to do, it’s impossible. Today we were a team, we challenged. In football you have to run.
“Seven times in a row, you play all the games, all the teams, in the Premier League, Championship. We love the FA Cup and hope to reach the final.”
Guardiola is expecting Forest to pose a real threat in the semi-finals, with Nuno Espirito’s side enjoying an excellent season so far. Forest currently sit third in the Premier League and beat City 1-0 at home earlier this month, although they did lose the reverse fixture 3-0 in December.
“Sometimes we’ve lost when we’ve performed well,” Guardiola told BBC Sport. “In the home game we won 3-0 so when we lose one game it looks like a disaster. It’s not true.
“They are third in the table, they are a very good team and we are pleased to play against them in Wembley with our fans. We won one title already. We won the Community Shield, we won it.
“This season has been poor, nothing is going to change. It has not been good, that is not going to change. Last year we played in a final and could not win it.
“We have an incredible target to qualify for the Champions League next season and that is what we are going to try to do.”
City will be back in action on Wednesday when they host Leicester in the league, but Guardiola will not be on the touchline. The Spaniard is set to serve a one-match ban after picking up his third yellow card of the season against Bournemouth.
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