Pep Guardiola hails “top class” Man City as Nathan AKe ends Tottenham hoodoo in FA cup

Pep Guardiola hails “top class” Man City as Nathan AKe ends Tottenham hoodoo in FA cup

Tottenham 0-1 Manchester City: Nathan Ake scored the only goal of the game as the FA Cup holders ended their goal drought at Spurs’ new stadium

Pep Guardiola embraces Kevin De Bruyne after Manchester City’s win at Tottenham in the FA Cup

Pep Guardiola embraces Kevin De Bruyne after Manchester City’s win at Tottenham in the FA Cup

Pep Guardiola was full of praise for his Manchester City players’ ‘unbelievable’ performance in their 1-0 victory over Tottenham. Despite a goal drought at Spurs’ new home ground that saw them reach 100 shots without scoring there, City managed to break the hoodoo and secure a win with a late goal from Nathan Ake.

 

 

Guardiola said: “Deserved it? I think so but football is about scoring, not conceding and the statistics were really good today. Unbelievable. The performance was top, top class. These players prove again the reason why they have done what they have done in the past.”

 

City thought they had scored early on, but Oscar Bobb was ruled offside after Vicario had stopped Foden from close range.

 

Spurs struggled in the first half and only managed one shot all match. Despite this, Manchester City continued to push for a goal. Bernardo Silva, De Bruyne and substitute Jeremy Doku all had chances but it was Ake who finally scored with just two minutes left after De Bruyne’s dangerous delivery caused chaos in the Spurs box.

 

This was De Bruyne’s third game back after a serious hamstring injury last season. When asked if De Bruyne was ready to start, Guardiola said: “He is ready. Ready to play.”

 

Ange Postecoglou was visibly upset after his team’s defeat. He confessed: “We fought hard to stay in the game but to be honest that’s all we did, we stayed in the game.”

 

“They’re a top team. They’re the benchmark. We’re not there yet and we’re under no illusion about that. I just felt that all of the second half was ok, the first half we were just too passive in a lot of our play and allowed them to get a rhythm.”

 

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.