Pep Guardiola admitted winning the FA Cup won’t be enough to salvage Manchester City’s disappointing season after they booked a place in the final on the same day Liverpool dethroned them as Premier League champions.
City, who had dominated English football with four straight league titles, stumbled badly this season, paving the way for Liverpool to clinch a record-equaling 20th top-flight crown.
Liverpool’s triumph was confirmed with a 5-1 demolition of Tottenham, wrapping up just as the final whistle blew at Wembley to seal City’s 2-0 FA Cup semifinal win over Nottingham Forest.
Rico Lewis scored after just 109 seconds before Josko Gvardiol extended City’s advantage in the second half.
City will face Crystal Palace in their third successive FA Cup final on May 17.
Guardiola’s fourth-placed team also is on course to qualify for the Champions League via a top-five finish in the Premier League.
But when it was put to the Spaniard that FA Cup glory and Champions League qualification would mark a “successful” campaign, he replied: “No, and I have said that many times.
“This season has not been good. We are a thousand million points behind Liverpool, so come on, this season has not been good.
“Look at the Champions League. How many games did we win? One or two? And we have always been a machine in that.
“We cannot confuse that the season has been good if we finish in the top five and qualify for the Champions League.
“The club has to take the decisions, the right ones, for next season to be better.”
City are 21 points behind Liverpool in the league and one point clear of Chelsea and Forest, who also have a game in hand, in the race for the top five places.
“Being in another final speaks so highly about the volume of generation of players and this club. And we are very pleased we are in the final,” said Guardiola, who has won the FA Cup twice in his City reign.
“But the season is defined by the Premier League and being consistent, and this season that couldn’t happen.
“The most important thing is qualification for the Champions League, and we have to be calm now and recover.”
City will be favorites in the final after routing Palace 5-2 at the Etihad Stadium earlier in April.
But Guardiola was impressed by Palace’s 3-0 win over Aston Villa in the semifinal on Saturday and warned against overconfidence.
“We have four finals to play, and then an unbelievable game against Palace, and we saw yesterday how good they are,” he said.