Advantage Liverpool for Man City's FA Cup tie as Pep Guardiola handed new concerns

Pep Guardiola said his team is in “big trouble” after injuries made Kyle Walker and Kevin De Bruyne major doubts for Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final. The pair limped off with what appeared to be ankle injuries in the bad-tempered goalless draw with Atletico Madrid, which saw the Blues book their place in the Champions League semi-finals last night.

But Guardiola’s injury worries are only part of the problem; City will head into the Wembley clash needing to rotate and rest some of their top players, or risk further injury ahead of a busy Premier League schedule before a last four meeting with Real Madrid in a fortnight. Guardiola admitted City ran out of gas in the second half at the Wanda Metropolitano, after having the better of the opening 45 minutes.

De Bruyne was flagging before his injury, and Bernardo Silva had to be taken off. It was unsurprising, as those two worked phenomenally hard to establish the edge that City had in the 2-2 draw with the Merseysiders, which kept them top of the league. City are still in the hunt for the Treble, while Liverpool can win the Quadruple — though one of those dreams will die on Saturday.

ALSO READ: City's unsung heroes win battle of Madrid

City flew directly to London on Thursday to cut down on travelling ahead of the game, but their preparation has been far from ideal. The luck of the draw in the Champions League meant that while Liverpool faced a gimme tie against Benfica, City had those two tough, nasty legs against the Spanish champions, two games that required full strength teams going flat out for the full 180 minutes.

From the moment the teamsheets dropped at Anfield and in Madrid last night, it was clearly a case of “Advantage Liverpool”. Jurgen Klopp, cushioned by a 3-1