Man City got through the Bournemouth challenge on Sunday, booking themselves a place in the FA Cup semi-final.
It’s a seventh-straight FA Cup semi-final for Manchester City under Pep Guardiola, who came from behind to beat Bournemouth 2-1 on the south coast in front of the ITV cameras on Sunday.
What looked like another miserable etch on their season actually turned out to be a positive day with goals from Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush securing the comeback, tough Man City now have an injury to Haaland which is a blow to the remainder of their season.
Pep’s side will play Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup semi-final later in the month. Before then they play Leicester City in the Premier League on Wednesday night and then Man United on Sunday.
Man City remain in 5th place of the Premier League table and just one point behind Chelsea in 4th, though Bournemouth all the way down in 10th are just four points behind City, so the top 10 could change drastically in the final nine games of the season.
Photo by Harry Murphy - Danehouse/Getty Images
Photo by Harry Murphy – Danehouse/Getty Images
Bernardo Silva hails Nico O’Reilly performance in Bournemouth 1-2 Man City
The shining light for Man City on Sunday was Nico O’Reilly. The 20-year-old City academy graduate has only featured twice in the Premier League this season but he came on at half-time of the game at Bournemouth and completely changed the game, grabbing both assists in the comeback.
More Man City News
Man City fans want to see more of O’Reilly in the coming weeks. He’s certainly given himself a good chance of featuring more after that performance against Bournemouth and Bernardo Silva has also weighed in with a positive opinion in the Englishman, with Silva explaining how O’Reilly is a good example to the other youngsters at the Etihad.
Silva told Mirror: “It’s difficult for a 20-year-old like Nico to settle into a team like Man City, to be patient enough because he has great players in his position and to keep going, work hard and he’s a good example.
“The small amount of opportunities he has, he’s taking them and that’s a great example for the rest of the young guys. So it’s showing he deserves a place in this team and he can have more opportunities.”
Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
Photo by Charlotte Wilson/Offside/Offside via Getty Images
What Pep told Nico O’Reilly before he came on for Man City
O’Reilly is another Pep-type attacker in that he’s someone who can operate right across the front line. Against Bournemouth, he spent much of his time on the left but found himself in a sort of free roam role.
And speaking after the game, O’Reilly revealed what Pep told him before he entered the game, with the Man City boss giving youngster O’Reilly some simple yet effective instructions which in turn changed the game.
O’Reilly said: “He was just telling me to stay wide and get in behind and if the winger’s out wide, come inside in the pocket so we have an extra man in attack.”
With so many attacking names out of form at City, like Phil Foden and Silva himself, now could be the perfect time for Pep to give O’Reilly some more minutes and get him bedded in ahead of next season, where he could pay a key role for Man City.