Manchester City 2-0 Newcastle United: FA Cup QF Reaction & Tweets

A birthday fit for the best midfielder on the planet!

Kevin De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling were both on the mark to help ease City to an impressive FA Cup quarter-final victory.

De Bruyne celebrated his 29th birthday in style by nailing home a first half penalty to fire Pep Guardiola’s side into a deserved lead.

And Sterling then secured the ticket into the last four with a sweet finish midway through the second half.

It was City’s 10th consecutive win in the competition and the reward for the FA Cup holders is a semi-final assignment with Arsenal at Wembley next month.

On to the reaction-

Pep Guardiola Reaction

“De Bruyne is definitely reliable and hopefully he can carry on because we struggled a lot this season with this,” the City manager said.

“We miss I think five or six. Kevin now takes responsibility; he has a confident personality and that is important for us.”

“Always, the hunger is there. The numbers speak for themselves over the past seasons. We are delighted after the defeat to Chelsea to be going back to London for the semi-final.

“We play to win. We spoke after what happened in Premier League - we need two more victories to qualify for Champions League.

“But we have two competitions we can win.

“We made the first step today. It will be good to arrive against Real Madrid in the best condition. To win this title would be the best way to prepare for Madrid.”

“It was a fantastic goal from Raheem,” he said.

“For the penalty, I didn’t see the review. Gabriel Jesus could have headed the ball and I think the opponent pushed him.

“De Bruyne is definitely reliable and hopefully he can carry on because we struggled a lot this season with this.

“We miss, I think, five or six [penalties]. Kevin now takes responsibility; he has a confident personality and that is important for us.”

Kevin De Bruyne Reaction

“I just do my job for the team. (The role) Doesn’t really matter, in my career, I’ve played lots of positions,”

“The coach asked me to do something different. We can also play with five at the back

“We have enough good players up-front to make the difference

“It’s my job to help the team and get them in good positions.”

“We had a few problems this year (with penalties) and the gaffer asked me to step up against Real Madrid,” the midfielder added.

“I’ve scored a couple now. If I’m the taker, I’ll try

“There will be a day when I’ll miss. You have to take responsibility but its good.”

“We know it’s weird (playing behind closed doors) and it’s not something i enjoy but on the other hand, we’re professionals, we have to keep going, and we knew after loss at Chelsea, we’d want to respond in good way,” De Bruyne continued.

“We should have scored more but played really well and created enough chances to score a lot of goals.

“I think we put them under pressure, didn’t give anything away apart from one chance in the second half

“We’re happy to be in the semi-final at Wembley and hopefully we’ll play a good game.”

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