'We’re going to go for it' - Man City keep trophy quest going with routine win over Newcastle
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola gestures on the touchline.
WEMBLEY Stadium may have been Pep Guardiola’s home away from home in his eight seasons in English football, but this year’s targets for Manchester City extend way beyond yet another FA Cup semi-final appearance at the historic old ground.
An effortless 2-0 win over struggling Newcastle carried Guardiola and City through to a record sixth successive FA Cup semi-final and his seventh in eight attempts.
Indeed, the only FA Cup tie Guardiola has ever lost outside Wembley came in a shock fifth round defeat at Wigan, of all places, in 2018.
Bernardo Silva’s two deflected goals mean City will be looking to improve on their record of just two victories in those previous six semi outings, in the process booking a return to the Twin Towers for what would be Guardiola’s third FA Cup Final in May.
But the veteran manager, who has also won four EFL Cup Finals, appeared in four Community Shields and beaten Spurs twice in two league games at Wembley, will have his eye on another fixture there at the start of June.
This season’s Champions League Final takes place at Wembley, by which stage City could be on the verge of an incredible treble for a second successive season, although this week’s draw for that competition has not been kind.
City will have to face Arsenal or Bayern Munich in the semis although, arguably more daunting, they first have to get past old rivals Real Madrid, having been drawn against them for a third consecutive season in the last eight.
“In my case, four times in five years since I’m here,” said City’s inspirational midfielder Rodri. “Yeah, we like Madrid. My home, my city. It is what it is.
“To be honest I loved what happened [in the draw] – the second game at home was the key, for me, not much the team you draw. We have it in the quarter-finals and if we go through in the semi-finals. So we were kind of lucky in the draw.
“At the end you have to face the best teams sooner or later. We face maybe the best team with us in the last years. We’re going to go for it.”
And, of the many intriguing sub-plots thrown up by former Barcelona legend Guardiola taking on the old enemy is the prospect of Rodri, whom his manager consistently claims to be the best midfielder in the world, coming up against Jude Bellingham, arguably England’s most exciting footballer at present.
“We know Jude quite well,” said Rodri. “Also, I faced Dortmund a lot of times when he played there and he scored against us. We know how he is as a player, tactically and with the quality.
“To be honest, let me say that we have to focus on ourselves more than the opponent. We’ve seen in the past year that with the best performance, City can beat anyone. And this is my only target until the end of the season.”
Guardiola, understandably, refused to be drawn into hypotheticals about Wembley fixtures to come. After all, his next league game after the upcoming international break is at home to Arsenal where defeat could all but end City’s title hopes.
Instead, there will be a dash back home to Spain - to avoid the Manchester rain, according to Guardiola - and keeping his fingers crossed that all his international players return from duty unscathed.
“I will not watch the games,” said Guardiola. “We will rest and, when we come back on Thursday, we’ll see which players survive and which not survive.”
The break will allow Jack Grealish to get back to full fitness and Kevin De Bruyne, absent against Newcastle, to recover from a minor groin problem. “Every three days,” is the mantra Guardiola emphasises to his players - an accurate description of a gruelling schedule which could still have 17 fixtures remaining, over 62 days, if City go all the way in the two cups.
That amounts to around one game every 3.6 days - so, not quite Guardiola’s “every three days” - but Rodri believes the schedule, and sniff of silverware, will draw the best out of a City side still not quite firing at the high levels of last season.
“Yes, of course. I always say the same. It’s going to be good for us, this break,” said Rodri. “You will see the best version of this team at the end of the season.
“Always it happens because of the manager, because of the standards of the club, because of ourselves and the ways we have learned over these years. This is what we want to do.
“We asked the lads to rest as much as possible. I know it’s tough but we have friendly games [for our national teams]. It’s important to play for our national teams but also to think about the end of the season. I think the best is yet to come.”
(4-2-3-1): Ortega 7; Walker 7, Akanji 7, Dias 6, Gvardiol 6; Rodri 6, Kovacic 7; Silva 8, Foden 7, Doku 7 (Bobb 77, 5); Haaland 7 (Gomez 86). Substitutes (not used) Stones, Ake, Grealish, Alvarez, Nunes, Carson, Lewis.
(5-3-2): Dubravka 8; Murphy 6, Lascelles 5, Schar 5, Botman 5 (Krafth 83), Burn 5 (Hall 62, 5); Longstaff 5 (Miley 62, 5), Guimaraes 8, Willock 5 (Anderson 62, 7); Gordon 5 (Almiron 62, 5), Isak 5. Substitutes (not used) Dummett, Ritchie, Targett, Karius.
S Hooper 7
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