Manchester City marched into a third FA Cup final in a row with a 2-0 win over luckless Nottingham Forest at Wembley.
Liverpool may have taken their Premier League crown with victory over Tottenham at Anfield but Pep Guardiola’s side still have the chance to salvage silverware from this season thanks to goals from Rico Lewis and Josko Gvardiol at the start of each half.
Forest will be cursing their luck after hitting the frame of the City goal three times but it is Pep Guardiola’s men who will now face Crystal Palace in the final on May 17, when they have the chance to clinch the trophy for a second time in three years.
Lewis’ arrowed opener into the bottom corner after two minutes was a hammer blow for Forest. They would have hoped to have grabbed something to cling onto themselves, as has been their style this term. Instead, their gameplan went out of the window.
Rico Lewis scored inside two minutes as Man City took an early lead against Nottingham Forest
There was brief belief at the start of the second period when half-time sub Anthony Elanga turned their first shot of the game wide but Gvardiol’s header from a corner soon after gave City the commanding scoreline their dominant performance warranted.
Josko Gvardiol celebrates his second-half header that put Man City 2-0 up against Nottingham Forest
Forest eventually rallied, with Morgan Gibbs-White crashing a volley against the bar and then clipping a shot against the post after Gvardiol’s error. When Taiwo Awoniyi’s instinctive flick at goal hit the post they really did feel their luck was out.
But as well as misfortune they can also reflect on a poor first 45. Many would have expected them to surrender possession and territory to City but more importantly they were unable to capitalise when they did seize the ball. They had no shots and just one touch in the City box.
Forest boss Nuno injected more purpose into their play in the second half but it was too late to turn the tie around. City, in their seventh FA Cup semi-final in a row, fell back on their big-game experience to navigate their way to another final. Even their most disastrous of seasons could still yield success.
Guardiola: We were lucky but in general played really well
Man City boss Pep Guardiola:
“Of course we are lucky we cannot deny that, they had chances. But apart form the actions they had, the game in general was really good play. Really pleased to be in the final again.
“We have to be calm now, recover. We have four finals [in the Premier League]. And then play Crystal Palace, and we saw on Saturday how good they are.”
Nuno: We gave it our all after really bad start
Nottingham Forest boss Nuno Espirito Santo:
“We started really bad. It makes everything hard. It took a little time to feel comfortable, to adjust.
“After that I think we did a good game. Second half the momentum changed a little bit. We had a couple of chances that could have put the game in a different story.
“Hard work, commitment was there. The boys give it all. We must accept we lost but the players worked very hard for it.
“Today is a sad day, it’s going to be hard. But tomorrow when you wake up and the sadness is gone we know we’ll have big things ahead of us to fight for,” he said. “It can only bring more energy to us to the end of the season.”
