Pep Guardiola has delivered the debt for the overwhelming campaign of Manchester City and does not feel that winning the FA Cup will not make the season a good one.
The city is fifth in the Premier League with nine more games, while they have also been beaten out of the Champions League.
The FA Cup remains their only realistic opportunity to save a trophy from their disappointing season, although they first have to navigate a difficult quarter -final tie against Bournemouth on Sunday.
The struggles of the city this season have largely been set up on the loss of Ballon d'Or Winner Rodri because of an injury and the fall of the form of important players from the office of Guardiola, such as Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ilkay Gundogan, who came to AC Milan in January.
Yet Guardiola said that the responsibility is at his feet.
“The opponents have never given us a red carpet to win the titles that we won in the past,” he told reporters, after he said that he will judge his work as “real poor” this season.
“My duty was to overcome the situation much better than I did.
“Hopefully this won't happen next season. This is important.”
En route
@cpcompany_1971 pic.twitter.com/38huj3iugo
– Manchester City (@Mancity) March 29, 2025
According to Opta's predictive model, City has a 57.5% chance of ending in the top four, although the top five of the Premier League are probably eligible for the Champions League.
Winning the FA Cup would also be a path to Europe (via the Europa League). City has won the trophy twice under Guardiola, who recently did it in their Treble-winning campaign in 2022-23, while reaching the final last season and lost to Manchester United.
“Of course it would be nice to arrive in the FA Cup final and to win, and to qualify for the Champions League,” said Guardiola.
“That would be a great success, but the season has been bad and it won't change.
“Our standards and many things were not good, this is the reality. That is not going to change for the fact that we win one title or are eligible for the Champions League.
“We will of course be happy. We want to do it, but the season has not been good.”
City has won their last seven FA Cup quarter -final tires, with these in the last eight campaigns. Their series of reaching the semi -final in six consecutive seasons is already a record in the competition.
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