City have no time to dwell on Madrid heartache

Chelsea beware: at 5.15pm on Saturday Pep Guardiola expects Manchester City to show precisely how little sorrow they feel for themselves after being dumped out of the Champions League by Real Madrid.

The FA Cup semi-final comes 72 hours after Wednesday’s penalty shootout heartbreak and, maybe, too soon for Mauricio Pochettino’s team as a smarting City aim to forget their lost double-treble and take another step in their bid to become the first English men’s club to claim a double-double.

As Guardiola said: “We don’t have another option and don’t want to feel sorry for ourselves. We performed at our best but were not able to win [against Madrid]. What next? We don’t have time to reflect. We reflect in the summertime. Football, you compete to win but most of the time you lose games.” Of City’s mood, he added: “Today we feel better than yesterday, and Saturday better than today.”

Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Manuel Akanji all asked to be replaced against Real. Of their availability for Wembley, Guardiola said: “Kevin feels well. Erling we will see – it was a tough game, 120 minutes. A lot of action, high intensity from both sides. Erling felt something, a muscular issue and that’s why he said he could not continue – the doctor said it was a little bit of a niggle and we will see the evolution in the next hours. Kevin felt exhausted and after what happened with being injured for five months, that is normal.” 

Guardiola is conscious Chelsea will not be pushovers despite their misfiring season. Sat in ninth, Pochettino’s temperamental band of players have only been beaten once in 12 games – that being February’s Carabao Cup final loss to Liverpool – and are coming off a 6-0 trouncing of Everton on Monday. Yet if City