Pep Guardiola believes the fixture schedule has cost Manchester City a place in the FA Cup final for the second year in a row after he was forced to shuffle his pack against Liverpool at Wembley.
Pep Guardiola said: “It’s quite similar. We came from Dortmund, this year from Madrid, just three days with travel. Always how the energy you spend in the situation, and always I feel bad when during the season I don’t let the players play. When I make a selection always I am thinking about the players I don’t allow to play. When I have the chance to do it I will do it. I felt for the circumstances, I spoke with officials, with the doctors, with my staff and I said what is the best. I’m happy to give the opportunity for all the players who last period didn’t play much, because I know the players and I know where it comes from from Madrid. I couldn’t do anything else and I was satisfied to play players I trust a lot and they showed it in the second half.”
While City’s dreams of a treble came to an end, Liverpool remain in the hunt for an unprecedented quadruple. They will contest the FA Cup final next month but remain a point behind the Blues in the Premier League. City and Liverpool could also meet in the Champions League final in Paris if they get past Real Madrid and Villarreal in the last four respectively, but Guardiola insists the Wembley result doesn’t hand Jurgen Klopp’s side a psychological advantage for the run-in.
Pep Guardiola said: “Well, there is one chance we play at the end of the season, in case both teams reach the final of the Champions League. So I will see what happened. Now the psychology is we have seven games in the Premier League and we know exactly what we will have to do to try to win the Premier League. And now we need to rest, especially don’t see each other, people recover the injuries and after go game by game. We don’t have time. In four days we have another one, then after Watford, then Madrid, then another one. We need all the people and try everyone, knowing that happened today. If we win we continue, we reach the final, if not we lose the competition.”
