Resilience and fight key for City, says Guéhi | OneFootball

Match Report

Haaland treble inspires record-breaking City into FA Cup semi-finals

The visitors began well and threatened on a few occasions inside the first 30 minutes, with Abdukodir Khusanov’s last-ditch tackle denying Mohamed Salah before Hugo Ekitike struck over from a promising position.

However, Pep Guardiola’s men stuck together and turned the game around, taking the lead after 39 minutes thanks to Erling Haaland’s calm penalty.

Haaland made it two before half-time with a splendid header and Antoine Semenyo struck a third five minutes after the interval. Haaland then claimed his 12th City hat-trick by sweeping in from Nico O’Reilly’s cut-back.

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James Trafford superbly kept our clean sheet intact with a great save from a Salah penalty as we cruised into our eighth successive FA Cup semi-final, and Guéhi felt the team arrived in perfect condition for the important encounter.

“It was a good win. The manager always says it’s important to arrive at the right time,” he said in an interview after the game. “At the end of the season it’s big games and big moments, so it’s important to arrive. Against a really good Liverpool side, we did that today.

“It’s not easy. You come up against top players and a top team and you will suffer at times. You have to stick together in those times. For them to not create a chance is almost impossible with the quality they have. You have to be wary and communicate a lot. For the most part we did well. It’s not easy against these players.

“When you suffer together and when you go through the game, enjoying those moments and sticking together, then you can grow into the game and we did that today.

“It’s so important that as a team, we show resilience and fight because we have the quality up front and all around the pitch to be honest.

“I’m super happy for Erling. He’s worked his hardest for the team even though there was a period when he wasn’t scoring many goals. So super happy for him.”

The Englishman has already tasted silverware since joining City in January and spoke about how the move is proving to be everything he thought it would be.

“It’s hard to put into words. It’s relentless. It’s exciting,” he continued. “Everything I wanted, to be able to play at this level and play for trophies. But just learning a lot and being able to make mistakes and learn again.

“I want to do it and I’ve got the opportunity to do that here with a fantastic football club, amazing players, amazing manager, and the fans have been great as well.

“A lot of ups and downs, a lot of crazy moments. You have to enjoy it. It’s not a long career so you have to make the most of these moments.

“Pep is exactly how you see him, how he comes across on TV and in interviews. He loves football, loves his players and just wants to win.”