Manchester City’s fans seem more presumptuous than their quadruple-chasing players.
Thousands of seats went unsold at Wembley Stadium as City reached the FA Cup final by beating Brighton & Hove Albion 1-0. City moves a step closer to collecting an unprecedented haul of trophies by an English club.
Outnumbered by Brighton fans, City had to dig deep to protect the victory after Gabriel Jesus met Kevin De Bruyne’s cross with a diving header to score in the fourth minute in front of 71,521 spectators.
Photo: AFP
Brighton, who are fighting for top-flight survival, caused problems for a City side striving for the Premier League title, which they won last season with a 100-point haul.
“The year after you have the tendency to be a bit more arrogant, more presumptuous ... and we are still there,” City manager Pep Guardiola said. “That is why it is incredible what these players have done so far.”
So far, only one trophy has been collected: the League Cup in February, by beating Chelsea on a previous trip to Wembley.
No English side have ever swept the Premier League, FA Cup and League Cup — let alone win the UEFA Champions League at the same time.
“It’s almost impossible to win the quadruple — surviving is a miracle,” Guardiola said. “We are losing players every game with tiredness or injuries, but still we will try to do it. It’s incredible what these players have done so far, and we are going to try and win every game until the end.”
City needed some good refereeing fortune against Brighton to finish with 11 men.
Kyle Walker pushed his head toward Brighton forward Alireza Jahanbakhsh in the 32nd minute, but he was only given a yellow card after surviving a video review. Jahanbakhsh appeared to initially tread on Walker, but Brighton manager Chris Hughton felt the City defender should have been dismissed.
“There would have been numerous circumstances where that exact same action would have got someone a red card,” Hughton said. “There was sufficient force in the action to warrant that ... and I’m even more disappointed this was a VAR [video assistant referee].”
Brighton’s priority now is to stay in the Premier League, with seven games to play and only five points separating them from the drop zone.
Relegation rivals Crystal Palace and Burnley won on Saturday.
Luka Milivojevic sent Crystal Palace to the brink of safety by securing a 1-0 victory at Newcastle United from a penalty in the 81st minute after DeAndre Yedlin’s clumsy challenge on Wilfried Zaha. While Palace moved 11 points clear of danger with five games remaining, Newcastle are seven points above the relegation zone.
Burnley are a point better off than Newcastle after winning 3-1 at AFC Bournemouth. After Ashley Barnes scored an own-goal, Chris Wood and Ashley Westwood turned the game around by halftime. Barnes netted the third goal.
Jamie Vardy scored twice as Leicester City beat Huddersfield Town 4-1 to make it four successive league wins. Youri Tielemans and James Maddison also scored for Brendan Rodgers’ seventh-placed Foxes.
A sumo star was born in Japan on Sunday when 24-year-old Takerufuji became the first wrestler in 110 years to win a top-division tournament on his debut, triumphing at the 15-day Spring Grand Sumo Tournament in Osaka despite injuring his ankle on the penultimate day. Takerufuji, whose injury had left him in a wheelchair outside the ring, shoved out the higher-ranked Gonoyama at the Edion Arena Osaka to the delight of the crowd, giving him an unassailable record of 13 wins and two losses to claim the Emperor’s Cup. “I did it just through willpower. I didn’t really know what was going
The US’ Ilia Malinin on Saturday produced six scintillating quadruple jumps, including a quadruple Axel, in the men’s free skate to capture his first figure skating world title. The 19-year-old nicknamed the “Quad god,” who is the only skater to land a quadruple Axel in competition, dazzled with an array of breathtakingly executed jumps starting with his quad Axel and including a quadruple Lutz in combination with a triple flip and a quadruple toe loop in combination with a triple toe. He added an unexpected triple-triple combination at the end to earn a world-record 227.79 in the free program for a championship
Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter is being criminally investigated by the IRS, and the attorney for his alleged bookmaker said Thursday that the ex-Los Angeles Dodgers employee placed bets on international soccer — but not baseball. The IRS confirmed Thursday that interpreter Ippei Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office. IRS Criminal Investigation spokesperson Scott Villiard said he could not provide additional details. Mizuhara, 39, was fired by the Dodgers on Wednesday following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well
MLB on Friday announced a formal investigation into the scandal swirling around Shohei Ohtani and his former interpreter amid charges that the Los Angeles Dodgers superstar was the victim of “massive theft.” The Dodgers on Wednesday fired Ippei Mizuhara, Ohtani’s long-time interpreter and close friend, after Ohtani’s representatives alleged that the Japanese two-way star had been the victim of theft, which was reported to involve millions of dollars and link Mizuhara to a suspected illegal bookmaker in California. “Major League Baseball has been gathering information since we learned about the allegations involving Shohei Ohtani and Ippei Mizuhara from the news media,” MLB