'I would love it' - Man City have the same FA Cup semi-final problem for the third season in a row
It has become the week that often defines just how many trophies Manchester City can win in a season and while the Champions League remains Pep Guardiola's Kryptonite, the FA Cup semi-final weekend can be just as frustrating.
It was telling that when Guardiola walked in for his press conference half-an-hour after booking a sixth semi-final in seven seasons on Saturday, his first answer began with a look ahead to the schedule. "Always we play after Champions League quarter-finals," Guardiola said of the cup semi-finals.
It has been a problem for them previously and in the five semi-finals they have reached, they have lost four. "Even the year we won we struggled," added the City manager. "It was against Brighton, not really good."
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In Guardiola's first season City lost to Arsenal in extra-time but had gone out of the Champions League to Monaco in the last-16. Since beating Watford 6-0 to win the only FA Cup of the Guardiola era, the Blues have fallen at Wembley in the semi-final in three successive seasons.
They lost to Mikel Arteta's Arsenal in the pandemic-affected campaign, but then lost to Chelsea a few days after Borussia Dortmund away in the Champions League, then were beaten by Liverpool last term, three days after being dragged into a battle by Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital.
For the third successive year the schedule has given City a repeat. An away Champions League quarter-final on Wednesday followed by an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley on Saturday.
Such is Guardiola's fatalism about the week that he was already predicting City would have to play at Wembley on Saturday. If they had drawn Manchester United it would have been