Usually it is the pundits who hail the excellence of Manchester City, but having reached the semi-final stage of the FA Cup for the fifth time in his six seasons in England, Pep Guardiola proclaimed his side’s record in the competition as “quite remarkable”.
It was not as simple as the scoreline suggested and Guardiola said the tie was made extremely difficult by the brave approach of Southampton, particularly in the first half. “We did not have the courage to pass the ball and even in tough situations try to not lose it, but even in easy ones we lost it, because we were not able to have the personality to play,” the City manager said.
“The second half was completely different, except the first minutes, and we played much, much better.
“Because of the quality Southampton have, they are incredibly organised, they provoke you to play in front of the ball, and in front of the ball they are so aggressive and, of course, have a good build-up.”
Kevin De Bruyne spoke of City making “too many stupid mistakes”, particularly in conceding at the end of the first half through Aymeric Laporte’s own goal.
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“We chose the wrong options and Southampton came back into the game,” the Belgian said. “Not a lot was said at half-time, but we had to play better, and we did that.”
The treble remains a possibility for City and Guardiola is obviously pleased about that.
He said: “The nice thing for the team is that fact. We are fighting for it in the last few weeks of the season, and we are there for the titles. At the start of the season I would have signed to be here in front of you, in the later stages, to be in this position, and we’ll see what happens.”
Ralph Hasenhüttl said that his team’s performance was better than the one in which the sides drew 1-1 in the league at St Mary’s in January.
“It is nice to see when you let them struggle a bit and how difficult it is for their rhythm,” the Southampton manager said.
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“To do this takes a lot of bravery and heart, running, and a lot of work against the ball, but when you do this the best teams can struggle. We gave them something to think about.”
