FA Cup: Manchester City deserve to be at Wembley - Guardiola
Middlesbrough did threaten again when Cristhian Stuani directed a 37th minute header too close to Bravo, but City remained firmly in control of the tie and Toure nearly extended their lead with a header shortly before the interval.
David Silva fired City into a third-minute lead at the Riverside Stadium, but victory was not sealed until Sergio Aguero added a second with 67 minutes gone.
They were almost made to pay when Kevin De Bruyne linked up with Leroy Sane, whose low ball in from the left was too far in front of an unattended Sergio Aguero.
City have reached the last four of the FA Cup for the first time in four years as Guardiola aims to win some silverware in his first season in English football.
It was City’s 11th straight game undefeated, their third straight clean sheet, and it provided a ideal limber-up for the defence of the 5-3 lead they take into Wednesday’s second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie in Monaco.
The Mancunian did not give it up against his first club - just as he will not do against the red side of Manchester this coming weekend as he and his team-mates seek to rescue Boro’s ailing league campaign against Mourinho’s men. City enjoyed 69 per cent possession and registered 18 shots, 10 of which were on target.
City resumed in ominous fashion as Aguero saw Guzan help his 51st-minute flick from Sterling’s cross on to the post and Zabaleta blasted just wide seconds later, and the keeper had to come to the rescue once again to deny Sane after he had exchanged passes with Silva. They have had a football lesson.
Failure in the two cup matches would leave Guardiola nearly certain to finish a season without a trophy for the first time in his managerial career, as City are ten points behind Chelsea, the Premier League leaders. They had put the big boys on the pitch.
He said: “It is not easy to have faith when it is 4-0 against you, but the most important thing was they believed it”.
I do fear for Middlesbrough. You see Madrid, you see Barcelona, you see Juventus, you see their teams in the boxes and they do not make any mistakes.
They are now playing a counter-attacking game and, apart from Adama Traore, they don’t have the legs to get forward quickly.
Pep Guardiola has claimed that Yaya Toure will have the pick of a number of big European clubs if he leaves Manchester City this summer.
“Now we recover good to play another big game on Wednesday”.
“We should have scored a few more goals because we created a lot of chances, but we were the better team and deserved to go through”.
“It’s hard, but we just have to keep believing in this group of players and we will fight until the end”.
“You have to be ready to defend crosses and deal with those long balls at the back”. We can not dream about anything yet because we still have a second leg to play.
We produced a good performance today. I like to work with these guys, I am so happy.