Big guns facing make or break
Toure calls for City to forget cup agony in derby showdown
YAYA TOURE says Manchester City must not allow their FA Cup pain to derail their hopes of finishing in the Premier League’s top four.
The Ivory coast midfielder knows they must pick themselves up following Sunday’s controversial semifinal defeat by Arsenal and concentrate on winning the Manchester derby on Thursday.
Victory for United at the Etihad Stadium would allow Jose Mourinho’s side to leapfrog City and leave Pep Guardiola’s team in danger of failing to qualify for the Champions League for the first time in seven years.
Toure said: “The top four is going to be difficult. It is very tight. United are doing well and Arsenal are going to gain confidence now. Liverpool lost but it is not finished yet.
“Sunday was a big disappointment but we have to recover and be ready. If we win we will forget the Arsenal game, but if we lose then it will be more difficult.
“We need to be in the Champions League. This club has qualified for the Champions League for six years now and Thursday is very important. It’s a special game, an important game. We have to do that job and we will see what can happen.
“We all respect Jose Mourinho. He is a great manager. He is clever and always works well on his tactics. We are looking forward to a great derby and we are going to make it one, I hope, because we are playing at home and we need to get these three points.”
Guardiola is already facing up to a season without a trophy for the first time in his eight as a manager and knows that failing to qualify for the Champions League would be a disaster, both for his personal reputation and City’s long-term project to become Europe’s top club.
In May 2013, after sacking Roberto Mancini, who had won the FA Cup and Premier League title in his three-anda-half years in charge, chief executive Ferran Soriano set out the club’s target of winning five trophies in the next five seasons. Since then they have won three in four years and experienced two seasons without silverware, so Guardiola will be under huge pressure to win at least two trophies next season to keep City on Soriano’s ambitious trajectory.
Toure believes they would have been in with a chance of lifting the FA Cup this season if a first-half ‘goal’ scored by Sergio Aguero on Sunday had not been ruled out after a referee’s assistant wrongly thought Leroy Sane’s cross had gone out of play.
And he thinks the incident underlined why video technology needs to be brought in. “Was it a decisive moment? If we had gone into half-time 1-0 ahead then I think so,” he said. “It was a big mistake. When the referee makes mistakes you respect them, it’s not easy. But next season they have to bring in cameras to tell the referee if it’s a penalty or a goal.
“It’s going to be difficult to forget this game because I’m very, very angry. But if I say something wrong the FA will punish me so I have to be careful. Maybe on Thursday we’re going to have a better referee or play without a referee. I’d prefer that!”
Toure was critical of Arsenal’s tactics and physical approach, which led to City’s Spanish playmaker David Silva going off injured early after being kicked by Gabriel.
“We’d never seen Arsenal play like that,” said Toure.
“We were quite surprised. It was the first time we had a battle with them, where we matched them. They were playing cleverly, they closed the lines, tried to stop us because they know we have fantastic players up front who are very quick.” SPAIN-FUL: Silva limped out of semi-final after being clattered