LONDON — Liverpool hung on to beat Manchester City 3-2 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to reach the final of the Football Association (FA) Cup and end Pep Guardiola’s hopes of a treble.
Jürgen Klopp’s side will meet the winners of Sunday’s other semifinal between Chelsea and Crystal Palace in the May 14th final as they keep alive their dream of an unprecedented quadruple.
Guardiola opted to rest several of Premier League leader’s City’s starters, including goalkeeper Ederson, and the weakened side were outplayed by Klopp’s team in the first half, going in 3-0 down at the interval.
Although City scored at the start and end of the second half, their weakened lineup never really did enough to win the game against opponents they drew 2-2 with in the Premier League last week.
Ibrahima Konate headed Liverpool ahead from an Andy Robertson corner in the ninth minute before a dreadful error from City’s American backup goalkeeper Zack Steffen gifted the Reds a second.
Steffen took too long when receiving a back pass from John Stones and Sadio Mane slid in to tackle the keeper and the ball flew into the net.
Mane then added another, on the stroke of half time, in more conventional fashion, driving a volley past Steffen after being set up by Thiago Alcantara.
Jack Grealish pulled a goal back 70 seconds after the resumption after Gabriel Jesus did well to beat Fabinho and set up the England midfielder who drilled home.
Liverpool keeper Alisson Becker was alert to get out quickly and foil Gabriel Jesus as the Brazilian burst goalwards, but while City was improved, they still were far from their usual levels of chance creation.
It was puzzling that Guardiola only made one of his possible five changes in the second half, bringing Mahrez on seven minutes from the end although the introduction of the Algerian did make a big impact.
For City, it was the third straight season in which they have lost in the last four of the FA Cup. — Reuters