(Football news) The winners of the second semifinal match between Manchester United and Coventry City in the Championship will play the Premier League champions of this matchup.
Man City’s hopes of winning the Champions League again and pulling off an unprecedented double-treble are gone as they were defeated as the best team in Europe by Real Madrid, the 14-time winners, who Pep Guardiola referred to as the “kings of the competition.”
A week on from their enthralling 3-3 first-leg draw in Spain, the Citizens were left frustrated as they were forced to play out a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at the Etihad Stadium on Wednesday; Kevin De Bruyne cancelled out an early Rodrygo opener, but a resilient Los Blancos outfit sent the tie to penalties.
Although Luka Modric missed Real’s first spot kick, both Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic failed to convert from 12 yards, before Antonio Rudiger netted the decisive penalty to send City – who lacked a cutting edge in the final third despite boasting 33 shots, 68% possession and 18 corners prior to the shootout – packing at the quarter-final stage.
Guardiola rued his side’s missed opportunities in the tie, but the second-leg draw in 90 minutes means that City have now equalled both their longest ever unbeaten run across all competitions (28 matches) and their longest ever unbeaten home run in all competitions (42 games).
The Citizens have little time to rest and regroup as they endeavour to end the season on a high by retaining two domestic trophies in the Premier League and FA Cup, starting with their record sixth successive appearance at the semi-final stage of the latter competition this weekend.
City, who have already beaten Huddersfield Town, Tottenham Hotspur, Luton Town and Newcastle United in this season’s FA Cup, have interestingly lost three of their previous five matches at the semi-final stage, including one loss at the hands of Chelsea (1-0) in 2021. Guardiola and co have since put together an eight-game unbeaten run against the Blues, though, including six straight wins before back-to-back league draws earlier this season.
A challenging and potentially defining run of fixtures over the next few weeks awaits the Blues, who follow up Saturday’s FA Cup clash against Manchester City with a trio of Premier League London derbies against Arsenal, Tottenham and West Ham – Chelsea have won just two of their last 15 games against these four teams combined since the start of last season.
Chelsea is preparing for their 27th FA Cup semi-final; only Manchester United (32) and Arsenal (30) have participated at this stage more times in the competition’s history. The Blues have lost five of their last seven FA Cup ties against Man City, including a humiliating 4-0 setback in the third round of the previous season. Chelsea has battled past Preston North End, Aston Villa, Leeds United, and Leicester City in this season’s FA Cup.
Also read: Liverpool will look to make a comeback in 2nd leg of UEL
