UPBEAT PEP IS LOVING THECUP
Guardiola delighted to be back at Wembley after City brush aside Boro at a stroll
PEP Guardiola has won the European Cup at Wembley as both a player and manager — now he will return there in his debut season with Manchester City.
Goals from David Silva and Sergio Aguero vindicated Guardiola’s decision to go with a strong line-up at the Riverside Stadium and comfortably progress to the FA Cup semi-finals.
They fired in 18 shots on Brad Guzan’s goal, keeping him busy enough to rival Leroy Sane as man of the match And Guardiola, a champion at Wembley in 1992 as a Barcelona player and then again as their manager against Manchester United in 2011, didn’t disguise his delight at the prospect of going back.
‘I have good memories of being at Wembley, the old and the new one,’ he said. ‘To have that experience again, I am so happy. We showed to the people that we wanted to travel to London for the semi-final. We deserved it by far.’
Guardiola named all his big guns despite having a Champions League tie in Monaco on Wednesday night. ‘We don’t discriminate between competitions,’ he stressed. ‘I grew up in a club [Barcelona] where it was not acceptable to lose.’
The reward came quickly, just as the clock ticked past the two-minute mark. Yaya Toure clipped a pass to the right for the overlapping Pablo Zabaleta and the defender’s cushioned volley inside reached David Silva via Raheem Sterling, with the Spaniard finishing from six yards.
That was always likely to be enough against a Middlesbrough side who have slipped into the bottom three of the Premier League and have failed to score in their last four top-flight games.
To give Aitor Karanka’s team credit, they never threw in the towel and were a threat while Rudy Gestede was on the pitch, with the big centre forward having one header cleared off the line by a combination of Claudio Bravo and Zabaleta.
Unfortunately, Gestede limped off just before the half-hour mark and took Boro’s hopes with him. From then onwards, City were able to control the game and Aguero struck after 67 minutes from Sane’s run and cross.
Aguero had earlier struck the post and the only concern for City in the closing stages was that some rugged Middlesbrough tackling would hurt one of their players.
Adam Clayton seemed to cross the line after 73 minutes by appearing to tread on Sterling but Guardiola said: ‘Some experienced English people told me not to talk about referees in press conferences,’ he said. ‘I don’t want to talk about referees. They have to talk. I am not going to talk.’
City’s unbeaten run now stands at 11 and the margin of victory would have been greater had Guzan not saved twice from Sane and once from Silva, who also lifted a shot over the bar from six yards. Guzan’s right boot also diverted Aguero’s shot onto the woodwork at 1-0.
Equally, things are tightening up at the back for City and their muchcriticised defence have kept five clean sheets in their last seven matches, John Stones helping out Bravo late on by hacking away Fabio’s header.
‘We started very well and miss a lot of easy chances,’ was Guardiola’s assessment. ‘They are a strong team when the ball goes into the box but the way we handled the game at 1-0 was good. Their goalkeeper was amazing.
‘How many chances did they have, only three or four? We had many more chances.’
Four Boro players were booked as they were fired up by a full house of 32,000 but Guardiola didn’t get drawn in.
‘All the games are physical,’ he said. ‘We have to show the desire to win something.’
In addition to Guzan’s saves, Sane miskicked in front of goal after being set up by Sterling, the excellent Ben Gibson stopped Sterling scoring and Toure headed a Kevin de Bruyne free-kick wide.
Soon after Karanka had made an attacking change by bringing on Gaston Ramirez, City scored their second. Sane sprinted down the left and produced an excellent, low cross that allowed Aguero to slide the ball in from close range for his sixth goal in five matches.
With his job done, Sane was then taken off.
‘He has had a lot of minutes in his legs,’ said Guardiola. ‘He’s played four or five games, 90 minutes, he is a special guy. Hopefully he will show you can pass sometimes instead of shooting yourself, but he is only 21.’