Pep fizzes as City head for Wembley
PEP GUARDIOLA has won the European Cup at Wembley as a player and a 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 as they eased into the FA Cup semi-finals.
City fired in 18 shots on Brad Guzan’s goal, keeping him busy enough to rival Leroy Sane as man of the match.
And the Spaniard, a European 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 to the famous north London arena.
‘I have good memories of 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 his big guns despite having a Champions League tie in Monaco on Wednesday. ‘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 twominute mark.
Yaya Toure clipped a pass to the right for the overlapping Pablo Zabaleta and his cushioned volley reached Silva via Raheem Sterling, with the Spaniard finishing from six yards.
That was always likely to be enough against a Boro side who 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 striker having one header cleared off the line by a combination of Claudio Bravo and Zabaleta.
Unfortunately, Gestede limped off just before the halfhour and took Middlesbrough’s hopes with him.
Boro have scored the fewest goals in the Premier League − 19 in 27 matches − and may now be without a striker who only joined them in January.
From then on, City were able to control the game and Aguero struck after 68 minutes from Sane’s run and cross.
Aguero had earlier hit the post and the only concern for City in the closing stages was that some rugged Boro tackling would hurt one of their players.
Adam Clayton seemed to cross the line after 73 minutes by appearing to tread on Sterling.
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 sent Aguero’s shot onto the woodwork with the score at 1-0.
Equally, things are tightening up at the back for City and their much-criticised defence have kept five clean sheets in their last seven matches, John Stones hacking away Fabio da Silva’s late header.
‘I prefer to take the positives because we recovered our consistency, our confidence,’ reflected Boro boss Karanka. ‘Conceding the goal at the start of the game, the reaction was good.’ MIDDLESBROUGH (4-4-2): Guzan; Da Silva, Gibson, Bernardo (Fry 50), Barragan; Leadbitter (Ramirez 66), Clayton, de Roon, Stuani; Gestede (Negredo 26), Traore. Subs (not used): Fischer, Valdes, Forshaw, Husband. Booked: Barragan, Leadbitter, Traore, de Roon. MAN CITY (4-1-4-1): Bravo; Zabaleta, Stones, Otamendi, Clichy; Toure (Fernando 86); Sterling, De Bruyne, Silva, Sane (Nolito 70); Aguero (Iheanacho 90). Subs (not used): Kolarov, Caballero, Delph, Fernandinho. Booked: None. Referee: Mike Dean. Attendance: 32,228.