{"id":410776,"date":"2026-04-25T21:05:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:05:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/410776\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T21:05:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T21:05:08","slug":"pep-guardiola-tells-man-city-star-what-he-must-do-to-usurp-rodri","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/410776\/","title":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola tells Man City star what he must do to usurp Rodri"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola<\/a> has said that Nico Gonzalez must \u201cbelieve in himself more\u201d after the Spanird\u2019s wonderstrike won Manchester City their FA Cup semi-final against Southampton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Premier League<\/a> side fell behind late on to their Championship counterparts at Wembley on Saturday, as Finn Azaz curled in a stunner beyond James Trafford.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

Substitute Jeremy Doku levelled soon after with a deflected effort, before Nico\u2019s thunderbolt from range completed the turnaround.<\/p>\n

The Spaniard has struggled for regular game time since his summer move from Porto, but that is mostly down to Rodri<\/a>, the 2024 Ballon d\u2019Or winner, being his main competition for a place in the starting XI.<\/p>\n

Rodri\u2019s recent injury lay-off – which began in the 2-1<\/a> win over Arsenal – extended to the weekend\u2019s FA Cup tie, as Nico was handed a rare start.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

He was overlooked for the 1-0 <\/a>win at Burnley in midweek, where Bernardo Silva and Nico O\u2019Reilly got the nod in the engine room, with O\u2019Reilly shifted infield and Rayan Ait-Nouri slotting in at left-back.<\/p>\n

However at Wembley, Nico repaid his manager\u2019s faith, stepping up when it mattered to send City back to the capital for their second final of the campaign, with their treble hopes still well and truly alive.<\/p>\n

Asked post-match whether he expected a piece of genius from the 24-year-old, Guardiola told BBC Sport: \u201dNo, I expect it more from the wingers and strikers but he deserves it.<\/p>\n

Advertisement<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has [had] an incredible season and what a goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has to believe in himself more that he can do more and not play to be safe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is the mentality he has to play with as a holding midfielder. He is a young guy and can improve a lot.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola has said that Nico Gonzalez must \u201cbelieve in himself more\u201d after the Spanird\u2019s wonderstrike won Manchester…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4026,42611,20904,194086,139124,85,46,170685,42612,2617,194085,170686,13474,2619,32749,31239,105],"class_list":["post-410776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arsenal","tag-bernardo-silva","tag-burnley","tag-fa-cup-semi-final","tag-finn-azaz","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-james-trafford","tag-jeremy-doku","tag-manchester-city","tag-nico-gonzalez","tag-nico-oreilly","tag-pep-guardiola","tag-premier-league","tag-rodri","tag-southampton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}