Pep Guardiola has asked his Manchester City players to prepare for the Champions League showdown with Real Madrid by winning the FA Cup.
City will face Real in the mini-tournament at the end of the season when they are back in Europe and handed their Premier League crown to Liverpool last week. They are determined to add another trophy to their collection before competing with the Spanish giants.
They made a significant step in that direction on Sunday when they booked an FA Cup semi-final with Arsenal with a 2-0 win over Newcastle in St. James’ Park, and Guardiola is in no mood for his men to stop there.
He said: “We are delighted to be back in London at Wembley after defeating Chelsea to play Arsenal in the semi-finals and reach the FA Cup final.
PEP ???? We need more victories to qualify for the #UCL. But we have two competitions that we can win. We took the first step today. – Manchester City (@ManCity) June 28, 2020
“It is always an incredible trophy and gives us an additional bonus. We spoke after what happened in the Premier League – we need two more wins to qualify for the Champions League.
“But we have two competitions that we can win. We took the first step today. It will be good to play Real Madrid in good shape.
“Winning this title would be the best way to prepare for Madrid.”
City was absolutely dominant on Tyneside, where they drew in the league earlier this season after losing eleven months earlier, but needed a bloodshed from defender Fabian Schar to open their account.
Crowd unnecessarily pushed striker Gabriel Jesus to the ground in the penalty area to give Kevin De Bruyne a chance to celebrate his 29th birthday with a penalty in the 37th minute, and he was committed.
Despite their inferiority at night, Newcastle should have equalized when substitute Dwight Gayle shot from close range in the 66th minute and Raheem Sterling had him paid almost immediately with a decent finish to end the win.
Guardiola said: “It was a fantastic goal from Raheem. I didn’t see the rating for the punishment. Gabriel Jesus could have headed the ball and I think the opponent pushed it.
“De Bruyne is definitely reliable and hopefully he can continue because we have had a lot to struggle with this season.”
Wait a minute, Steve! Manchester— Manchester City (@ManCity) June 28, 2020
It was a disappointing evening for Magpies head coach Steve Bruce, who admitted that his team’s performance in the first half was not good enough.
He said, “When you play against teams like that, you can’t make the mistake we made for the punishment. Unfortunately we have given bad, bad punishment and it is difficult enough because of the skill they have.
“In the second half we were much better and brighter and the big turning point – could we have made it a really good cup game if we had equalized?
“Who knows if we could have continued from there, but we were certainly better in the second half.”
