Pep Guardiola’s frantic body language released every frustration suffered in a season of mediocrity as the clouds lifted and the sun finally shone on Manchester City at Bournemouth.
Guardiola has cut a tortured, agonised figure for most of a campaign in which the form of his Manchester City side fell off a cliff after claiming a historic four successive Premier League titles.
It left the FA Cup as the only target left to stop Guardiola suffering the rare ignominy of finishing a season empty-handed for the first time since his opening one at City in 2016-17 – which was the only campaign he has not won a trophy as a manager.
And watching Guardiola at close quarters at Vitality Stadium as City came from behind to win 2-1 made a mockery of Guardiola’s own assertion that not even winning the FA Cup could make up for failing to make a dent in the Premier League and Champions League.
It was pure theatre watching the man so used to glory, who lives for success, exude relief, celebration and then uncontained joy when City deservedly got over the line.
This was Guardiola publicly savouring the sweet taste of victory after so often failing to find solutions to the crisis, certainly by their own standards, that has dragged City down this term.
He said City came to the Vitality “with flip-flops” when they suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season in November. This was strictly business.
“In November, we came here for a holiday against a team that competes,” he added.
The only thing that smacked of a holiday here was the glorious south-coast weather as British Summer Time arrived – and City had to survive a storm of their own making before securing the win.
From the first minute, Guardiola burned with desire for victory, a livewire in the technical area throughout and at the final whistle after a win that sealed a remarkable seventh successive FA Cup semi-final appearance, this time against Nottingham Forest at Wembley.
And, as all the great managers do, Guardiola still kept his analytical mind ice-cold throughout the fiery touchline behaviour to make the change that turned the tide of this FA Cup quarter-final when City trailed to Evanilson’s scrambled goal at the interval.
Guardiola removed the struggling central defender Abdukodir Khusanov, switching Josko Gvardiol into the middle and introducing talented 20-year-old Nico O’Reilly at left-back.
O’Reilly’s natural position, as Guardiola confirmed, is a number 10, but here he did damage on the flanks, setting up an equaliser for Erling Haaland, who had missed a first-half penalty, then played in substitute Omar Marmoush for the winner.
