City survive Forest scares to set up another Cup final date
Manchester City's Josko Gvardiol, left, and Ruben Dias celebrate after a goal during the English FA Cup semifinal. Pic: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
Manchester City survived some late scares from Nottingham Forest to set up an FA Cup final clash with Crystal Palace on May 17.
Pep Guardiola's team looked to be on their way to a comfortable victory after early goals in each half from Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol gave them a 2-0 lead.
But Forest refused to throw the towel in and struck the woodwork three times in the later stages of the second half - two of the efforts coming from Morgan Gibbs-White and the other from sub Taiwo Akinwonyi.
It was Forest's first semi-final appearance since 1991 when a 19-year-old Roy Keane scored their first goal in 4-0 win over West Ham at Villa Park.
By sharp contrast it was City's seventh successive last four appearance in the competition - and eighth in the nine seasons since Guardiola took over in 2016 - and maybe their greater experience of the big occasions helped them make a dream start with youngster Lewis putting them in front after just one minute and 50 seconds.
His deft touch and quick turn from Mateo Kovacic's incisive pass set him up for a shot that he drilled with crisp efficiency into the far corner of the net from the edge of the penalty areas.
City, with the experienced Kovacic running the show, went on to dominate the first half - underlined by their 76 per cent possession - wtih Forest rarely managing to get out of their own half and struggling to string nay passes together.
But for all their superiority City didn't manage a second goal before the break. Nico O'Reilly went the closest underlined his growing confidence with some neat foot work to evade two Forest challenges before firing narrowly wide.
it was no surprise that Forest made a change at half-time with Anthony Elanga coming on. And Elanga should have equalised with his first touch - and Forest's first shot of the game - but he fired wide after an enticing cross from Callum Hudson-Odoi.
City made an immediate and devastating response. Matz Sels made a double save, keeping out efforts from Matheus Nunes and Kovacic, but from the resulting corner he was caught in no-man's land as Gvardiol headed home Omar Marmoush's corner.
Sels denied City a third with a fine save from Marmoush before Forest sparked into belated life.
Gibbs-White twice came within inches of putting them back in the game, first when he smashed a super volley against the bar and then when he intercepted a back pass by Gvardiol and rounded Stefan Oretga only to see his shot hit the outside of the far post.
Then Akinwonyi headed against a post and Ortega made a flying save from Gibbs-White as Forest finished strongly with City, in the end, relieved to get over the line as they kept their trophy hopes alive following a troubled season.
Sels 6; Abbott 5, Milenkovic 5, Murillo 6; Dominguez 4 (Elanga 46, 7) , Danilo 5, Anderson 5 (Sangare 71, 5), Toffolo 5; Gibbs-White 6, Wood 5 (Akinwonyi 71, 5) Hudson-Odoi 6.
Miguel, Morata, Sangare, Silva, Sosa, Boly.
Ortega 6; Nunes 7, Dias 7, Gvardiol 8, O'Reilly 7; Kovacic 9 (Gonzalez 88, 5) Lewis 8; Silva 7, Grealish 7 (Gundogan 71, 6), Savinho 7; Marmoush 8 (Doku 81, 6).
Ederson, De Bruyne, Reis, Akanji, Khusanov.
Michael Oliver 8
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