Man City extraordinaire Pep Guardiola opened up after the FA Cup semi-final win over Chelsea

Pep Guardiola launched into a lengthy rant after Manchester City beat Chelsea to reach the FA Cup final.

City won 1-0 at Wembley Stadium in the semi-final on Saturday, with Bernardo Silva scoring the winning goal in the second half. Victory for Guardiola’s side will now set up a final against Manchester United or Coventry City next month in the capital.

The win for City comes just three days after defeat by Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. City lost to the La Liga giants on penalties at the Etihad Stadium, but still managed to recover in time to play Chelsea at Wembley a few days later.

The decision to play the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday is one that has irked Guardiola and he continued to vent his frustrations in a lengthy post-match rant. Guardiola was speaking to BBC Sport, where he was joined by Gary Lineker, Micah Richards, Frank Lampard and Alan Shearer on the touchline at Wembley, where he was asked about the switch between the games against Real Madrid and Chelsea.

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“It’s unacceptable. It’s really unacceptable,” Guardiola told the BBC. “Coventry (and) Man United and Chelsea don’t play during the week and let us play today. Next week Friday would be better, instead of Saturday put it (the game) on Friday for recovery.

“It’s for the health of the players. It’s not normal. Honestly, it’s not normal. It’s not possible. It’s unacceptable to go 120 minutes. You’re all footballers. And the emotion, Madrid, the way we lose.

“I know in this country it’s special for many things, but it’s for the health of the players. I don’t understand how we survived today.”

Lineker then responded by asking Guardiola if he had personally raised the issue with the FA. Guardiola responded by further explaining why he was unhappy with the scheduling of the match.

Guardiola said: “Gary, do you think the demand will change anything? The only power I have, I say here.

“I know it won’t change anything, but why are you playing today and not tomorrow when Coventry, United and Chelsea are not playing in the week?

“Why don’t you have a player health day anymore? Tell me how you are preparing for this match with Chelsea in the best moment of the season, the semi-final of this prestigious FA Cup. How? It’s impossible. . There is no chance.”

Shearer then suggested that Guardiola could make more changes to his formations for both games against Real Madrid and Chelsea. The City boss responded by explaining why recent history has affected his squad selections this season.

“You can change your team,” Shearer said. “You don’t have to play that many players in a Wednesday game and you only made four changes today.”

Guardiola then replied: “I know I had, I thought a lot. I remember two or three seasons ago the same thing happened – we played in Dortmund on Wednesday, we traveled here on Saturday against Liverpool, we made a lot of changes, 3 -0. At halftime they destroy us after saving face in the second half.

“So I changed a lot and thought a lot with the staff. This player, that player. Most of them were not recovered, it’s impossible. Not just physically, but the way we play. Mentally it is so hard to recover.

“These guys are legends, what they’ve done for seven years they proved it again. Rodri, the way he played today and Kyle (Walker) was there after injury for three or four weeks, played 120 minutes and now he ran with (Nicolas) Jackson and (Mykhailo) Mudryk at the end, I don’t know how they survived – hats off.”