In the seven years that Pep Guardiola has been at Manchester City, the FA Cup is the national trophy that has resisted him the most. They have only won it once, in 2019. The data could be irrelevant given the absolute dominance they have shown in the Premier, but the FA Cup has a special significance, different from that of the cup tournaments in other European countries. It is, after all, the oldest competition in the world, whose first edition was held in the 1871-1872 season and which the English care for and respect. Guardiola’s men reached the semifinal at Wembley, in which they faced the surprising Sheffield United, with an immaculate career: fourteen goals scored and zero conceded in four games, having left Chelsea, Arsenal, Bristol and Burnley on the road.
Pep’s eleven presented significant variations. De Bruyne, Rodrigo, Stones, Dias and Ake received rest, in addition to the usual change of goalkeeper. Although Guardiola lined up two full-backs, the scheme was the usual this season; Walker acted as center back in a line of three, while the Spanish Sergio Gómez got inside. Sheffield, who can confirm their promotion to the Premier this week, quickly showed that they had not come to Wembley to hang out. In a corner he was about to take the lead when not even two minutes had been played.
Perhaps for this reason, the citizen team wanted to play at a low pace, prioritizing avoiding rival transitions. After twenty minutes, Guardiola’s men began to cheer up. First it was with a shot from Mahrez, which went wide and shortly after with another from Julián, who forced the rival goalkeeper to intervene in a meritorious manner. It was a mirage, however, and the game fell back into a soporific state, which, despite not being to the taste of the spectator, is of City’s interest at certain times. He rests with the ball, approaches the opponent’s box, and is in a good position to penalize any mistake by the opponent. This is how it happened, Sheffield committed a child penalty and Mahrez (it was surprising that Haaland did not shoot) transformed it to put his team ahead before the break.
The second half started with the same script for City, but Sheffield were more inaccurate than they had been for the first forty-five minutes. After ten minutes Haaland was about to score the second on a rejected ball, one of those plays that the Norwegian likes so much. Shortly after the sentence came. Mharez stole a ball from the rival field and drove towards the goal. The unchecking of Haaland, on one side, and Julián, on the other, worried the defenders of the blades so much, that they ended up opening the central corridor, and the Algerian, practically without having to dribble, stood alone in front of the goal. Five minutes later Mahrez scored his hat-trick after a Grealish cross and the game was sealed. Guardiola was then able to rest his most used players, such as Haaland, Gundogan or Grealish himself. Not much else happened in the rest of the game, City’s long possessions left no option for any attack by the Blades and they even came close to scoring the fourth with a shot from Julián Álvarez and another from Palmer.
Asked at the press conference prior to the match about the possibility of the treble, Guardiola said he felt “very far away.” The message is part of the usual prudence of the Catalan coach, who always serves to remind us how difficult it is to win titles in football, the speed with which a great season can turn negative. Despite this, the reality is that City depends on itself to achieve a historic treble, from which 12 games separate it. For now, he makes sure to be at Wembley on June 3, where he will face the winner of Brighton-Manchester United, which will be played tomorrow.
2023-04-23 09:56:07
#City #step #closer #treble
