Andoni Iraola says that Bournemouth must quickly reproduce the disappointment of an “ missed opportunity ” to reach his very first semi-final of the FA Cup if they want to make their hopes of delivering European football next season.
The Brazilian striker Evanilson gave the Cherries an advance in the first half of Vitality Stadium only for Erling Haaland and Omar Marmoush to run the game for Manchester City who has reserved their place in the last four for a seventh consecutive year.
“It was two different halves,” admitted Iraola. “We were very good in the first and played as we wanted, but we could not maintain the intensity levels required in the second. If you give a longer possession to a team like City, they will punish you and that’s what happened.
“We put the uncomfortable game in the first half, do not give them space, they did not have long goods but you give a lot of energy in return and we could not continue to press and give them too much time on the ball.”
The Iraola team had not reached Wembley in a cup competition since they arrived in the final of the car windshield shield in 1999 and must now concentrate quickly at the Premier League, where they sit at four points behind the fifth city in fifth place – with the first five being sufficient for football of the league league in the next mandate.
“Right now, it’s normal to think about this missed opportunity,” added Iraola. “It was huge for us, winning at halftime. Now, everyone is disappointed, but we have a little more than two days to recover mentally and physically to win a match against Ipswich which becomes even more important.
Bournemouth took an early advance against Manchester City in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup on Sunday
But Man City retaliated in the second half and left stadium Vitality with a ticket for Wembley
The boss of Bournemouth, Andoni Iraola, illustrated (right) applauding fans of his team after full time
For Guardiola, this is a seventh consecutive visit to Wembley in the semi-final of the FA Cup and keeps life his only hope remaining silverware this season.
It was a defeat at the Vitality Stadium in November which sparked a series of six defeats in eight championship matches for the Guardiola team while their grip on a fifth successive title of Premier League was in smoke.
“We are talking a lot about the game we have rightly lost here,” said Guardiola. “It was then that we started going to our route down this season. We talked a lot and we saw a lot of images that were not in our standard, nowhere where we won six Prime Minister leagues in seven years and seven semi-finals of the FA Cup immediately.
“I told the players today that we cannot accept a performance like the one here in the league when people went down five hours.
“It was a difficult season for us, the title was miles and miles, and of course, we still have this one and we are happy to bring our people to Wembley.
“It is an incredible achievement to do so year after year – if you drop, even against a Ligue 1 or a championship club, you can lose.
“Now we broke our own record, last year, it was six in a row, and now it’s seven. This is what this club, this team, these legendary players have shown a lot of times.
Guardiola said that his players had had trouble this season due to a lack of “heart and desire”, but insisted that he could not simply put their finger on a reason why they let their standards high.
“It was a lot of things, a lot,” he added. “I’m going to write it in my memories. A lot. Not just one. And put the PEP first on the list. I should have made decisions that I did not make at the right time. If it was only one of the reasons, it would be easy. There are many. Hopefully, at the end of the season, we can change, learn from this and prepare for the next.