London: A hat-trick by Riyad Mahrez, the first in a FA Cup semifinal in 65 years, ended Sheffield United’s hopes of reaching the cup final for the first time since 1936. With their 3-0 win, Manchester City kept their hopes alive of achieving the treble this season.
Along with the FA Cup their focus will now be on the European Champions League semifinal and the Premier League in which they are second from the top, behind the leaders Arsenal, but have two games in hand.
City manager, Pep Guardiola whose teams have suffered four semifinal defeats said: “What I’m so impressed by is everyone – from the hierarchy to backroom staff – after six years of winning titles, and when not winning, losing finals of the Champions League and semifinals, we are still there for another year.
“That is what makes me proud the most. One year you can do it. I don’t want to win one Champions League and then after that you’re at the bottom. After six years, we are in the last seven weeks still fighting for titles.”
In praise of Mahrez, Guardiola said: “He’s an exceptional player, a big-stage player. He has a mentality to score, composure for the penalty was good. Riyad has given many, many things to us over the years.”
City were dominant almost throughout the game yet Sheffield had the chance to take an early lead in the second minute when City conceded a corner which they could not clear and the ball went to Iliman Ndiaye whose shot was not powerful enough from six yards with only the goalkeeper to beat who dived to his right and smothered the shot.
City pressed hard but had few good shots on target in the first half except for an attempt by Julian Alvarez from the edge of the box. But with two minutes of the half remaining, they were awarded a penalty when Bernardo Silva was brought down by the unlucky Daniel Jebbison whose right foot did appear to graze the ball in the tackle but VAR decided otherwise.
Sheffield showed grit in battling hard in the second half but could not match their opponents for skill and City doubled the lead just about on the hour. Max Lowe lost possession in midfield to Mahrez who ran with the ball from the halfway line with neither Jack Robinson nor John Egan able to stop him as he clipped the ball in.
Five minute later, with a fine move from the left, Jack Grealish found Mahrez with a perfectly accurate pass and the Algerian side-footed a first time shot to complete his hat-trick and keep the delighted City fans’ hopes alive for the treble.
Sheffield manager, Paul Heckingbottom said: “There’s a lot of frustration today but I saw a team go right to the end. I can’t get away from the fact we gave City the first two goals. We need to be better. We didn’t score when we had the first two minutes of the game.”
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