BY AYODELE ODUMADE AT WEMBLEY STADIUM

The Manchester City Manager Pep Guardiola has emphasised that it is almost impossible to win the quadruple. He was speaking after his side narrowly beat Brighton 1-0 to reach the FA Cup final.  City, who have already won the Carabao cup this season are also in contention for the Premier League and are in the quarter final of the Champion League. Guardiola said: Surviving is a miracle. It’s nice to be there. Nobody has done it, so why can we do it? It is almost impossible to achieve everything. That is the truth.”

He went on further: “It is incredible what these players have achieved. We are going to try till the very end.”  City were without their striker Sergio Aguero who picked up a hamstring injury and the manager was asked what his situation was. He said: “ He did not do one single training with us. We will see what he is like tomorrow.”

Do you believe anyone can play 60 games and give a fantastic performance every time? No one can do that.” Guardiola said.

The decisive goal was scored after just three minutes of the game by Gabriel Jesus, who got on the end of a cross by Kevin De Bruyne, with a diving header past Matt Ryan. 

Kyle Walker appeared to headbutt Alizera Jahanbakhsh but he was fortunate that the red card was overturned by VAR.

Meanwhile the Brighton Manager Chris Hughton praised his side after their narrow loss to City. He said: “ I can’t imagine there would have been too many occasions this season when  I am struggling to see where they had a few clear chances, with the quality they have. I don’t think that would have happened to them may times. Particularly going behind early on I don’t think there were too many people in the stadium that didn’t think a second and third goal would soon come along.”

He went on further: “When we look at the distance our players covered and the intensity I think it would be as high as at any stage of the season. If you open up thinking you can score two or three goals then they are going to score five or six.”

To run a team as good as City close takes a huge effort. The level we reached today is something we need to take into our forthcoming games. It has been a wonderful journey and we are we are happy for the club and most of the supporters and you can see by how many turned up today. But the Premier League is more important. By Monday morning the we have to put our Premier League heads on because we have got a fight on our hands,  we need to get results and hopefully as quickly as possible.”