Pep Guardiola insisted that Manchester City 'tries' to avoid the damage' or their 'bad' season after the deceased winner against Aston Villa had set them on course for Champions League qualification.
The Premier League champions – at least a few more days – went to third place, four points free from sixth place Villa, thanks to the 94th minute strike by Matheus Nunes.
The city's competition campaign is well short than their usual best, with a sad series of the end of 2024 that is paid for the hope of an unprecedented fifth Straight League title. In the meantime, their hope for glory in the Champions League was terminated in the play-off round after an extensive defeat of Real Madrid.
But the victory over Villa – their fourth in five league matches – has brought them to a moving distance from saving a place in the most important competition of European football in the next term.
Post-match, Guardiola, the season of the city was bad, while it was cheering the quality of the five parties with which they are in competition to qualify for the Champions League.
“The season has been bad,” said Guardiola. “It's not good. What gives you the feeling that the season is good is the Premier League, not the Champions League of FA Cup.
'But it happened, sometimes you have bad seasons for many reasons, but until the end we will try to prevent the damage. Liverpool will be champion and arsenal of what I can say, Chelsea, Aston Villa, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest, ourselves. The level of teams is excellent.
'The team has changed since the Bournemouth FA Cup competition. Manchester United We did not play well. It is for situations that I know perfectly. '
In addition to their remaining league objective, City is in the race for the success of FA Cup and offer the final for the third season in a row.
The men of Guardiola take on Nottingham Forest – now a point and place behind them in the competition – in the semi -final of the cup in Wembley on Sunday.
After the draw, the attention will return to things in the competition, where a favorable set of luminaires make city -strong favorites to seal Champions League qualification.
Tuesday's collision against Aston Villa was seen as a huge obstacle for that purpose. Guardiola did indeed claim that the competition would be a final in his reactions for the game.
His side survived an early fear when Marcus Rashford hit the mail within 17 seconds after the meeting, but they quickly recovered and took the lead in the seventh minute through Bernardo Silva. The close-range strike of the Portuguese turned out to be too hot for Emiliano Martinez to handle and twist the stop in the net.
The most controversial moment of the game came 11 minutes later when Ruben Dias was judged to have contaminated Jacob Ramsey in the area. Referee Craig Pawson initially waved in Play -on previously instructed to assess the incident at the Pitchside Monitor.
The decision was reversed so that Marcus Rashford could score the equalizer for Loan Manchester United.
City was made to wait until the fourth minute of the stop time when, after a fantastic piece of wing game by Jerremy Doku, Nunes arrived at the distant post to score his first Premier League goal for the club.
While City is celebrating the initiative in the Champions League race, Villa's hope a big blow. The men of Unai Emery are at the back of a chase that also includes Chelsea, Newcastle and Forest.
The Midlands Club must recover quickly from their disappointment prior to their own FA Cup semi -final against Crystal Palace on Saturday evening.