Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola will not be on the touchline for his side’s Premier League clash against Leicester on Wednesday after he was booked in their FA Cup win against Bournemouth
Pep Guardiola will serve a touchline ban after he was shown a yellow card in Manchester City’s FA Cup quarter-final win over Bournemouth. Guardiola was booked for dissent by referee Stuart Atwell after star striker Erling Haaland was brought down during the game.
Haaland was forced off after suffering an apparent knee injury following a challenge from Lewis Cook, with the Bournemouth star landing on top of the striker. Despite Haaland signalling that he needed to be substituted, Bournemouth continued to play on which sparked an angry reaction from City.
Kevin De Bruyne could be seen exchanging words with Cook, while Guardiola was booked after making his thoughts known about the situation. The booking is Guardiola’s third this season and means he will not be on the touchline when City host Leicester in the Premier League on Wednesday.
Guardiola has been walking a disciplinary tightrope for a while now, having previously been booked during City’s 2-2 draw with Arsenal in September and their 3-2 win over Fulham in October.
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City came from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1 and reach the semi-finals of the FA Cup for the eighth time in nine seasons under Guardiola. Evanilson gave Bournemouth the lead in the first-half, but second-half strikes from Haaland and Omar Marmoush booked City’s place in the final four.
City will now meet Nottingham Forest in the semi-finals in April and Guardiola is expecting Nuno Espirito Santo’s side to be a tough challenge. Forest have enjoyed an outstanding season so far and currently sit third in the league.
Although City beat them 3-0 at the Etihad in December, Forest won 1-0 in the reverse fixture earlier this month. “Sometimes we’ve lost when we’ve performed well,” Guardiola told BBC Sport when asked about the impending clash with Forest.
“In the home game we won 3-0 so when we lose one game it looks like a disaster. It’s not true. They are third in the table, they are a very good team and we are pleased to play against them in Wembley with our fans.
“We won one title already. We won the Community Shield, we won it. This season has been poor, nothing is going to change. It has not been good, that is not going to change.
“Last year we played in a final and could not win it. We have an incredible target to qualify for the Champions League next season and that is what we are going to try to do.”
Guardiola also hailed the impact of 20-year-old academy graduate Nico O’Reilly, who came off the bench to assist both Haaland and Marmoush’s goals. “The impact from Nico was really good, but not just him – really pleased that we reach the semi-final, again,” he told ITV.
“Not just young players, but the old players as well. Today, Bernardo [Silva], Gundo [Ilkay Gundogan] and Kevin [De Bruyne], you know they are really good.”
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