Pep Guardiola pays tribute to Southampton as Man City scrape into FA Cup final

Pep Guardiola paid tribute to plucky Southampton after Manchester City scraped into a fourth successive FA Cup final with a dramatic 2-1 comeback victory at Wembley.

A slow-burner of a semi-final came alive 11 minutes from time when Finn Azaz put the second-tier Saints on course for a shock win by curling home a sublime goal.

Yet that served only to spark City into action and substitute Jeremy Doku quickly equalised with a deflected strike before Nico Gonzalez won it with an 87th-minute piledriver.

“I never thought it would be easy,” said City boss Guardiola, who made eight changes to the team which won 1-0 at Burnley in midweek

“The energy we had second half with Jeremy and Savinho, for example, and other players, if they start from the beginning they would not have this energy.

“The first half was not bad. We didn’t concede much. In the second half we played in the level that we played in Burnley.

“Unfortunately we are not clinical enough and you have to wait. A holding midfielder made an outstanding goal.

“How many times in the second half did Southampton cross halfway? One. And what a goal. Football is unpredictable.

“That is why sometimes it is nice and sometimes it is, ‘oh my God’. Big credit to the way they defended and how they played.

A crazy end to the game