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Manchester Evening News
Manchester Evening News
Sport
Joe Bray

Pep Guardiola urges Man City squad to ignore Manchester United mind games for FA Cup final

Pep Guardiola is only focussing on winning the FA Cup final vs Manchester United, and has urged his Manchester City players to ignore any thoughts of what winning the final will mean.

United midfielder Bruno Fernandes has declared City the best team in the world in the build-up to the final, but Guardiola wants the only focus to be on winning the game on the pitch.

City will keep their treble hopes alive with a win at Wembley, while United are looking to complete a domestic cup double as well as deny City their treble - therefore keeping their own 1999 achievement unequalled. For Guardiola, the only thing he wants his City players to concentrate on is the football game on Saturday afternoon.

ALSO READ: Every word from Guardiola's press conference

"It should be good for us to think about what we have to do one game, nothing changes," he said. "Analyse the strength of opponent, see the weaknesses they have. It’s a football game, that’s the most important thing. We cannot control what's on the outside, for last two games we do what we can to win the game."

Responding to Fernandes' claim, Guardiola again pointed to the fact that winning the cup will come down to 90 minutes and nothing more.

"Sometimes [we are the best in the world], but other times we don’t play good. It’s a football game," the manager said.

"A final is how you will be in that moment. The 90 minutes. It's not what you have done in the past, how good you are or not good you are. It's how you perform individually, as a team, all the details in this 90-95 minutes. It's not important what we have done in the past.

"In the Premier League we were better than them - not this season but for many many years. But it's just one game, so we have to do our best version, to be our best to beat them."

However, should United force extra time and penalties on Saturday, Guardiola said that his players are ready to take penalties if required.

He explained: "It depends on the players, sometimes they practice and sometimes not. It's important to pay attention, perfectly the finals lately there are many arrive in extra time and penalties. It's an aspect we try to control it.

"I think it’s an important skill, the mentality. Before the penalties there are two options - take the penalty and score or hit the penalty and say 'I'm not going to score.' That makes a difference if you score or not. This is what you have to work on. You have to decide to put it right or left, or panenka, whatever decision. But fully commit to do this penalty, you have a big percentage to score the goal."

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