Pep: Three FA Cup finals in a row says it all about this generation and this Club | OneFootball

City boss Pep Guardiola said reaching a third consecutive FA Cup final spoke volumes as the quality and mindset of his group of players and the Club overall.

A fine all-round display saw City overcome a resolute and dogged Nottingham Forest 2-0 in Sunday’s semi-final clash at Wembley.

A superb second minute strike from Rico Lewis gave Guardiola’s side the perfect start to the game.

Though Forest pushed hard and hit the woodwork three times, Josko Gvardiol’s header early after the restart deservedly confirmed our place under the Wembley arch once more next month where we will meet Crystal Palace in the final on Saturday, May 17.

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And reflecting on the success in what was City’s seventh successive semi-final, Guardiola made plain his admiration for the class and consistency of the players under his charge.

“Seven semi-finals in a row, three finals speaks so highly about this generation of players and this Club in itself,” Pep declared.

“We are really pleased that we are there. This season has not been good because what defines it is the Premier League.

“Since I have been here always we have been there but we try to avoid the damage and qualify for the Champions League.

“We have five days to play a team like Wolves who are playing really good.

“We have four finals in the league and then unbelievably pleased to play Crystal Palace here.

“Yesterday you saw how good they are.

“Scoring an early goal helped us, then we continued to play with tempo but we were not clever in the final third and had three or four chances to shoot when we did not.

“They had chances of course and we were lucky with the post, we cannot deny that but, in general, we played really good.

“Really pleased to be in the final again.”

The boss was also full of praise for a superb all-round display from Lewis who was deployed in midfielder to great effect and whose goal capped a brilliant man of the match display from the Academy graduate.

“Rico and Nico O’Reilly played really good. Really pleased,” Pep added.

“Rico helps us a lot as a full-back, coming inside but I think his perfect position is in the pocket.

“He moves really well in small spaces like Phil [Foden]. You have to be aggressive in the next action. Rico since he landed with us he’s been really good.

“When we play really good and drop the opponents in the final third, we need players that can move in those small spaces.

“Rico’s one of the best at that I have ever seen. He showed his fantastic quality with the goal.”