LONDON: Pep Guardiola said winning the FA Cup will not be enough to salvage Manchester City’s troubled season after they reached the final on the day Liverpool ended their reign as Premier League champions.
Guardiola’s side had been crowned English champions for the last four seasons, but their dismal form for much of this term handed Liverpool the chance to seal a record-equalling 20th top-flight title.
Liverpool’s coronation was sealed with a 5-1 rout of Tottenham that finished at almost the exact moment the full-time whistle blew at Wembley to signal City’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Rico Lewis scored after just 109 seconds before Josko Gvardiol extended City’s advantage in the second half.
City will face Crystal Palace in their third successive FA Cup final on May 17.
Guardiola’s fourth-placed team are also on course to qualify for the Champions League via a top five finish in the Premier League.
But when it was put to the Spaniard that FA Cup glory and Champions League qualification would mark a “successful” campaign, he replied: “No, and I have said that many times.
“This season has not been good. We are a thousand million points behind Liverpool, so come on, this season has not been good.
“Look at the Champions League. How many games did we win? One or two? And we have always been a machine in that.
“We cannot confuse that the season has been good if we finish in the top five and qualify for the Champions League.
“The club has to take the decisions, the right ones, for next season to be better.”
City are 21 points behind Liverpool in the league and one point clear of Chelsea and Forest, who also have a game in hand, in the race for the top five places.
“Being in another final speaks so highly about the volume of generation of players and this club. And we are very pleased we are in the final,“ said Guardiola, who has won the FA Cup twice in his City reign.
“But the season is defined by the Premier League and being consistent and this season that couldn’t happen.
“The most important thing is qualification for the Champions League and we have to be calm now and recover.”
City will be favourites in the final after routing Palace 5-2 at the Etihad Stadium earlier in April.
But Guardiola was impressed by Palace’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the semi-final on Saturday and warned against over-confidence.
“We have four finals to play, and then an unbelievable game against Palace, and we saw yesterday how good they are,“ he said.
