Pep Guardiola has warned his Manchester City stars that Manchester United are capable of wrecking their treble dreams in Saturday’s FA Cup final.
City will arrive at Wembley this weekend hoping to complete the second part of their incredible bid to win the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup in a single season. After facing bitter rivals United in the first all-Manchester FA Cup final, City travel to Istanbul to play Inter Milan in the Champions League final on June 10.
Guardiola’s sole focus this week has been United, who stand in the way of the club’s attempt to emulate their neighbours’ historic treble triumph in 1999.
United are the only other English club to have won all three major trophies in one campaign and Erik ten Hag’s men would dearly love to stop City moving closer to matching their achievement.
Pep Guardiola
Guardiola is well aware Ten Hag’s team have enough quality to hurt them if they are not at their best. Guardiola personally watched United’s recent 4-1 rout of Chelsea, while memories of City’s 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford in January still haunt the Spaniard.
“I am more focused on United right now. I saw their game against Chelsea. I was really impressed and I have started to review a little bit what they did to us in the game at Old Trafford,” Guardiola said. “As in the past, we have to be careful. I would be careful anyway but after Thursday and their games recently, we are going to prepare the best we can.”
Haaland crucial for City
Inevitably, Erling Haaland will be City’s key man at the end of a brilliant first season in England. The Norway striker has scored 52 goals in all competitions, including a single-season record 36 in the Premier League. That was another notable achievement in an impressive first season for Ten Hag, who ended United’s six-year trophy drought with a League Cup final victory against Newcastle in February.
United are relishing the opportunity to ruin City’s treble hopes, even without injured forward Anthony Martial. “Of course, we know it’s a big final, a special game. We’ve been the whole year fighting to be in that position to win titles. We will try absolutely everything to try to win,” United keeper David De Gea said.
Meanwhile, Ten Hag is confident United have the squad strength to beat arch rivals City. “We have a good squad and from that good squad we make a good team.” United are looking to complete the domestic cup double for the first time, having lifted the League Cup in February. “We want to win, we want to win a cup,” Ten Hag said.
Ten Hag confident of win
“It’s not about stopping them. It is about that we win, that we win the cup. We have a great opportunity. That’s great that we deserved that opportunity to be in the cup final and then meet Man City. That’s a great opportunity. We fought so hard for it. I think we progressed that well that we are in that FA Cup final. “They play very good football, so they deserve it. Of course I look at others because they are opponents and I evaluate it, but we look to ourselves,” he said. “We make very good progress, we are in a good direction and now we use the coming period as well.”
Also Read: Manchester City vs Manchester United live streaming: How to watch FA Cup Final?
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