Guardiola not getting carried away by domestic treble talk | OneFootball

Pep Guardiola has insisted that Manchester City are still ‘far away’ from a domestic treble despite reaching the FA Cup final.

City came from behind to beat Southampton 2-1 at Wembley on Saturday evening, as goals from Jeremy Doku and Nico Gonzalez saw off the Championship side, who had opened the scoring through Finn Azazz.

The Citizens won the League Cup last month after beating Arsenal at Wembley, and will return to face either Chelsea or Leeds in the FA Cup decider. City are also involved in a tight title race with Arsenal, opening up the prospect of a domestic treble.

It’s a feat achieved only once previously in the history of English football, by Guardiola’s side during the 2018/19 campaign.

Despite reaching a record-breaking fourth successive FA Cup final, Guardiola said he is focusing only on the next game.

“Far away,” Guardiola said when asked about the potential of winning another domestic treble.

“Before the final and before the Aston Villa game, then I will tell you it’s a chance. Now it’s far away.

“Now it’s important we have three days off for the players and I tell them don’t think about football and rest.

“Now we start the season of five games plus the final of the FA Cup.

“Now I would say the Premier League is almost gone. We are back second. Then we will see how we arrive.”

Guardiola praised the performance of opponents Southampton at Wembley, admitting he did not underestimate the Saints despite making mass changes to his team.

“They were 19 games unbeaten, so I never thought it would be easy,” he said. “So the energy we had in the second half from Jeremy and Savinho [helped, but], if they started from the beginning they would not have this energy.

“Because Jeremy, especially when you play three days, three days, three days, the risk of getting injured is so massive. The players [who started] deserved to play, they helped us.

“The first half was not bad. We didn’t concede much. In the second half, we played at the level we played in Burnley but unfortunately we arrived in the 18-yard box, and we were not clinical enough.

“You have to wait for the holding midfielder to score an outstanding goal. And Jeremy with the first. How many times in the second half did Southampton cross the halfway? One. And what a goal.

“Football is unpredictable. Big credit for the way they defend, the way they play.”

Read – Manchester City: Gonzalez says semi-final winner might be best career goal

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