Pep Guardiola said Manchester City had recovered some of their missing heart and soul as they advanced to a seventh FA Cup semi-final in a row with a 2-1 win at Bournemouth.
The City manager, whose team have been drawn to face Nottingham Forest, relied on what he called his “legendary” players – Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Ilkay Gündogan – in his side’s win on the south coast.
What Guardiola felt made the difference, however, was the collective attitude that, since City lost 2-1 at Bournemouth in the Premier League on 2 November, has been found wanting on too many occasions.
“We talked a lot about the game we lost deservedly here against Bournemouth,” Guardiola said. “That was when we started to go in our down-road this season. We saw a lot of images [from the game] that were not in our standard, nowhere near. There are minimum requirements that we have to show, respect for your mate, you have to make the effort. And today we did it.
“This season we have played more games like the one against Bournemouth, which is why we have not deserved more. The most important thing today was that the players have learned the lesson.
“I told them we cannot accept a performance like the one here in the league when people have travelled down for five hours. What we missed this season was heart, soul; the desire from how we’d done it for many, many years. For a manager the most important thing is to recover this passion. After Bournemouth, we started to make incredible mistakes and as a team we didn’t have heart. That’s the most important thing we have to recover at the end of the season and in the future.”
Guardiola was asked why the heart had been missing during what has been the toughest season of his nine at City. “I will write it in my memoirs,” he said. “It was many things. Not just one. And put Pep first on the list. I should have taken decisions I didn’t take in the right moment.
“I adore to play like today. If Bournemouth go through, congratulations. But I like to lose this way and we didn’t lose many times this way. A few weeks ago at Nottingham Forest [in the 1-0 league defeat], did the team play like today? No. Hopefully at the end [of the season] we can change, learn and prepare for next season.”
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Guardiola was full of praise for Nico O’Reilly, who came on as a half‑time substitute to set up the goals for Erling Haaland and another replacement, Omar Marmoush. Guardiola joked he would now have to start O’Reilly in the semi-final. The manager also said he had no information about the injury that forced Haaland off.
