Pep Guardiola: Man City’s Schedule Is Challenging

Guardiola, who attended El Clásico on Sunday night at Camp Nou, believes his City squad will need to manage the calendar more effectively.

Pep Guardiola, the head coach of Manchester City, believes that his team has struggled because critical Champions League and Premier League games fall in the middle of April.

On April 22–23, the FA Cup semifinals will take place, only days after the Champions League quarterfinal matchup with Bayern Munich, and Guardiola acknowledges that preparations may be challenging.

In order to avoid another FA Cup semi-final battle, according to Guardiola, his City players will need to manage the timetable better. Guardiola was at Camp Nou for El Clásico on Sunday night.

“The FA Cup semi-final at Wembley is usually the worst game we play. Never were we there, the man said.

“Every time, our performances were absolutely subpar. Even the year we won, we failed to do well against Brighton.

City advanced from one of their prior semi-finals in 2019 and went on to win the title, but they lost in the other four.

“Maybe one year we can play the semi-finals here in Manchester,” he said, “but the previous several years we always traveled before or after the Champions League quarter-final.

“We weren’t prepared, we were exhausted, and perhaps this year we’ll be a little more prepared. It is a goal of ours to compete in the FA Cup final this year.