MY ACCOUNT
Jack Grealish firmly believes Manchester City can win a Premier League and Champions League double and insists their FA Cup loss to Liverpool will not affect their ambitions.
Pep Guardiola’s men suffered a thrilling 3-2 semi-final defeat to Jurgen Klopp’s team on Saturday, with Sadio Mane’s double adding to Ibrahima Konate’s opener to give the Reds a comfortable half-time lead.
Goals from Grealish and Bernardo Silva threatened an incredible turnaround, but City were unable to find a leveller and fell to their first Wembley defeat to Liverpool, having beaten them on penalties in both the 2016 League Cup final and the 2019 Community Shield.
City have now lost on four of their last five FA Cup semi-final appearances, but Grealish said the loss would not affect their attempts to beat Liverpool to the Premier League and Champions League trophies.
“Yes, 100 per cent [City can win both competitions],” he told the club’s official media channels. “You go in there and look at the talent and experience that we have in that dressing room, I don’t think anyone else in the league has one like it.
“Our performances and where we are in the league speak for itself. We just have to pick ourselves up, go again and hopefully by the end of the season we’ll have [won] the Premier League and the Champions League.
“That’s what you’ll get at Manchester City, because you’re always in [multiple] competitions come the end of the season, it’s always game after game.”
City’s slow start to the encounter resulted in them conceding three first-half goals for the first time since April 2018, when they trailed the same opponents 3-0 at the break in the Champions League.
The former Aston Villa man conceded their poor display in the opening period ultimately cost them a place in the final, suggesting City would have levelled an absorbing tie had it gone on for just five more minutes.
“Obviously we started slow, for the whole of the first half Liverpool were on top,” he added. “For us, it wasn’t an ideal first half and in the end it cost us.
“I’m not going sit here and say excuses. I just think we came out slow. That was it. Liverpool have been the same as us, they’ve travelled the same amount as us in the last few weeks, played the same as us.
“We didn’t have the first half that we wanted to, but we came in at half-time and the manager made a few changes. In the second half I think we were much better for it, but I think in the end it was too little, too late.
“With another five minutes I think we’d have gotten another goal, and if we took it to extra time there would only have been one winner, but it wasn’t meant to be.”
City will turn their attentions back to the Premier League when they host Brighton and Hove Albion on Wednesday, although they could begin that game in second place with Liverpool, one point behind the leaders, facing Manchester United one day earlier.
