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With Manchester City beating Championship side Sheffield United 3-0 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to qualify for the FA Cup final in early June, the English media officially defined the last month and a half of the season as the moment to witness the miracle of the Blue Moon's treble.
In the three-tier battle of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, the FA Cup semi-final is considered to be Manchester City's easiest hurdle to overcome. Since the opponent is Championship side Sher League, there is widespread speculation that Pep Guardiola will not even play with the main squad, because next week, the Blue Moon will host Premier League rivals Arsenal at home, which is a "semi-final" that could determine the success or failure of their league battle.
As a result, Guardiola still came up with a starting lineup with a number of main players, which pointed out by BBC chief football correspondent McNulty, which fully reflects Pep Guardiola's attitude towards the three-tier battle now - I want them all! At the same time, McNulty stressed that Manchester City's current physical condition is actually very good, and Guardiola's pre-match concerns about team exhaustion do not match the actual situation, "Guardiola played his players in midweek that they were exhausted after the Champions League, but in fact this is not the case, you can see that he did not use a squad to play in the third line, but almost every game has been adjusted, and today's main and substitute mix is very effective." An absolute workhorse like Ederson has been given a chance to rest, but Haaland can still be seen in the forward line, which also makes it clear to the outside world that Manchester City's ambition to sweep the treble now! ”
Xie United resisted tenaciously for 40 minutes, and two minutes before the end of the first half, Bernardo Silva was brought down in the box and Mahariz opened the scoring with a penalty. The Algerian star then drove in from midfielder in the 61st minute with an easy shot from inside the box. Five minutes later, he scored a beautiful hat-trick to help City qualify for the final 3-0 with a cross from the left that received Grealish in the middle of the box.
Mahariz became the first player to wear a cap in the FA Cup semi-finals since Alex Dawson in 1958. Manchester City were also the first team since Everton in 1966 to reach the FA Cup final with a winning record without conceding a single goal. Guardiola's side had all failed in the semi-finals of the tournament for the previous three years, so much so that it was once thought that the Spanish coach had limited interest in the time-honored tradition. The coach also clarified this after the game, "Considering that just 3 days ago, we were still travelling to Munich, so I think the team's performance today is excellent. We were not comfortable with their long pass tactics at the beginning, but in the end, with the performance of Mahariz and other players, the team managed to secure a place in the FA Cup final! It was a great honour to be able to play in the FA Cup final on 3 June and the best reward for us to take this semi-final seriously today! ”
Manchester City's Premier League rivals Arsenal have dropped points again in the league ahead of their FA Cup qualification for the final, and now just five points ahead of the Blue Moon after two rounds of play, and Pep Guardiola's side look set to turn the tide in a direct conversation with Arsenal next week. Everton legend Osman, who is a commentator on the BBC, singled out City's current squad, pointing out that under Pep Guardiola's careful arrangement throughout the season, this already strong squad now does not have any players on the bench who have been out of the squad for a long time, which is a stark contrast to their title rivals.
"Not only is Manchester City staggering in squad thickness right now, but there is hardly a team in the Premier League that has such a luxurious squad at this stage of the season. You have to give praise to Pep Guardiola, who has given almost everyone in the squad plenty of playing time, and City don't have the kind of bench who sits on the bench for six weeks because they don't get a chance to play, so there's no situation where a coach suddenly puts a substitute on the pitch and they can't provide the same competitive condition as the main player. Guardiola's use of everything feels just right and Mahariz's hat-trick today speaks for itself. And as a manager, Guardiola is now being rewarded with everyone on the pitch when the team is faced with multiple fronts. Looking at European football as a whole, there are only a handful of clubs that can do this. ”
However, although the English media believe that Manchester City's dream of a treble is imminent, Manchester United legend Keane, the last captain to lead the team to complete the treble, said in an independent TV post-match commentary on the same day that Manchester City's road to winning the Champions League at least was far less smooth than people thought, "I don't envy the success of any team, because I know how difficult it is to play on multiple fronts at the end of the season." If Manchester City do win all three tiers, I would offer my congratulations, but they still have a lot of hurdles to overcome, and only Real Madrid, experts in the big spectacle of the Champions League in the semi-finals, will really get into the field of vision. ”
Author: Liu Chuan
This article was originally published in the Sports Plus app
The image comes from the Internet