Ahead of their FA Cup final match against Crystal Palace on Saturday, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland termed the season as horrific, boring and tough. City has been in such a slump that their Champions League qualification for next season is still up in the air with two rounds to go with the former champions 4th with 65 points just 2 ahead of Chelsea and Aston Villa in the 5th and 6th spot respectively.
“This season has been tough. It is not nice to lose so many games. It is boring and not fun. That’s why we need to finish well and get a trophy. It is a good habit to reach Wembley and always important to win trophies. We have the FA Cup final to play for and in a horrific season we still managed to do this,” the Norwegian striker told BBC Sport.
“When you have won four league titles in a row, if you don’t win five it’s not going to be a successful season. Those are the standards we have set. We haven’t done good enough in the league but still hoping for Champions League qualification. Crystal Palace are a really difficult club to play against. At Selhurst Park we drew and they started really well at the Etihad. They are an amazing team with quality players,” he added.
City, who won the Premier League in six of the previous seven seasons — including an unprecedented four in a row, still have a chance to finish the season on a high if the win the FA cup and the upcoming Club World Cup.
Manager Pep Guardiola said recently neither he nor his players deserve a bonus even if they win the Club World Cup, which has a prize pot of $125 million for the champion. He also suggested no trophy would salvage the campaign after the manner in which his team surrendered the Premier League title, sitting 18 points adrift of champion Liverpool.
City is in its third FA Cup final in a row. It is Palace’s third FA Cup final ever. It lost to Manchester United in the previous two- in 1990 and 2016. So while the cup would be only a consolation prize for City, for Palace it would mean everything as the London club’s first major trophy.
(With agency inputs)
