City cup treble is still on
Pep Guardiola believes it is easier for Manchester City to focus on cup glory for the rest of the season as the holders reached the FA Cup semifinals with a 2-0 win at Newcastle on Sunday.
City will face Arsenal at an empty Wembley in the last four next month after the Gunners struck in stoppage time to beat Sheffield United 2-1.
Chelsea were 1-0 victors at Leicester thanks to Ross Barkley’s winner which set up a semifinal clash with Manchester United.
Kevin De Bruyne’s penalty and a stunning strike from Raheem Sterling got City back to winning ways on Tyneside after a 2-1 defeat at Chelsea in midweek crowned Liverpool Premier League champions for the first time in 30 years.
“In the Premier League we are struggling to focus,” admitted Guardiola.
“Now in the Cup and the Champions League it is a little bit different.”
City were utterly dominant in the first half but had to wait until Gabriel Jesus was pushed by Javier Manquillo inside the box eight minutes before half-time for De Bruyne to break the deadlock.
“We should have scored more but we played really well and created enough chances to score a lot of goals,” said De Bruyne.
“We know it is really weird (to play behind closed doors), it is not something that I enjoy, but we are professionals and we need to keep going. We wanted to respond in a good way. We are happy we are in a semifinal now.”
City’s eighth league defeat of the season in midweek again exposed the defensive deficiencies they have to solve if they are to add the club’s first ever Champions League and another FA Cup to the League Cup they retained in March.
Newcastle had a glorious opportunity to equalise when Dwight Gayle somehow fired over Allan Saint-Maximin’s cross.
However, City possessed plenty of firepower at the other end and moments later Sterling cut inside to curl into the bottom corner from outside the box to kill the tie as a contest.
The FA Cup semifinals are set to to be played at Wembley Stadium on 18 and 19 July. –