Andoni Iraola says that Bournemouth should quickly pick himself up from the disappointment of a 'missed opportunity' to reach their very first FA Cup-Halve final if they want to fulfill their hope to deliver European football next season.
The Brazilian striker Evanilson gave the Cherries a first half a lead in the Vitality Stadium for Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush to turn the game for Manchester City who recorded their place in the last four for a seventh year in a row.
“They were two different halves,” Iraola admitted. 'We were very good at the first and played the way we wanted, but we could not keep the intensity levels in the second. If you give a long -term possession to a team like City, they will punish you and that is what happened.
“We made the game uncomfortable in the first half, they did not give room, they had no long possessions, but you give a lot of energy in return and we could not keep track of the same presses and they gave too much time on the ball.”
The side of Iraola had not reached Wembley in a Cup competition, because in 1999 they came to the final of the car windcreens Shield and now that their focus has to quickly return to the Premier League, where they are only four points behind the fifth city placed with the top five that are probably enough for Champions League-Football.
“At the moment it is normal to think about this missed opportunity,” Iraola added. “It was huge for us and won during the break. Now everyone is disappointed, but we have little more than two days to recover mentally and physically to win a match against Ipswich that becomes even more important. '
For Guardiola it is a seventh consecutive visit to Wembley in a FA Cup-Halve Final and this season keeps his only remaining hope of silverware alive.
It was defeated in the Vitality Stadium in November that a series of six defeats led in eight league games for Guardiola's side, while their grip on a fifth consecutive Premier League title went into smoke.
“We talk a lot about the game we rightly lost here,” said Guardiola. “That was when we started to go in our Down-Road this season. We talked a lot and we saw many images that were not in our standard, nowhere near that we had been to have won six best competitions in seven years and seven FA Cup semi -final in a row.
'I told the players today that we cannot accept a performance, compare them here in the competition when people have traveled for five hours.
'It has been a difficult season for us, the title is miles and miles away, and of course we still have this and we are happy to bring our people back to Wembley.
'It is an incredible achievement to do the year after year – if you fall, even against a competition or championship club, you can lose.
'Now we broke our own record, last year it was six in a row, and now it's seven. This is what this club, this team, have often shown these legendary players. '
Guardiola said his players had struggled this season due to a lack of 'heart and desire', but insisted that he could not just put his finger on one reason why they had their high standards slip.
“They were many things, many things,” he added. “I'll write it in my memoirs. A lot of. Not just one. And first put Pep on the list. I should have made decisions that I had not made at the right time. If it was only one reason, it would be easy. There are many. Hopefully we can change at the end of the season, learn from it and prepare for the next one. '
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