Guardiola hails 'extraordinary' Lewis and Kovacic as Man City reach FA Cup final

Pep Guardiola labelled Rico Lewis and Mateo Kovacic as "extraordinary" after Manchester City beat Nottingham Forest 2-0 at Wembley to reach a third straight FA Cup final.

Lewis opened the scoring inside two minutes to become City's youngest goalscorer at Wembley since Steve MacKenzie netted in the 1981 final against Tottenham Hotspur.

Josko Gvardiol thumped in a second-half header that proved enough for City to get the job done, while Croatia midfielder Kovacic was named Man of the Match after an industrious display.

Asked by ITV after the game if he foresaw Lewis scoring after selecting him in midfield, Guardiola said: "No. I'm clever but not enough to see that, come on.

"But he's a player in this position in the pocket who is extraordinary."

Kovacic has been in good form of late and put in a fine performance in the heart of City's midfield, which was acknowledged by his manager.

"The last three or four games have been extraordinary," he added.

"We are lucky to have time to recover. He cannot play every three or four days. The quality he has, the composure is extraordinary."

FULL-TIME | We're through to the #FACup final!0-2 #ManCity | @okx pic.twitter.com/uMrfjmZdGr
— Manchester City (@ManCity) April 27, 2025

City have qualified for the FA Cup final for the 14th time in their history with four of those coming under Guardiola, with only Chelsea (five) reaching more finals in the competition since Guardiola took charge of the club.

But they did ride their luck a little at times, with substitute Anthony Elanga missing a great chance shortly before Gvardiol's goal, while Morgan Gibbs-White twice hit the woodwork and Taiwo Awoniyi also struck the post.

"A few months ago the (shots that hit the post) go inside, that's for sure," Guardiola added.

"Everything is in the head, in the mind of the players. We are in the final, it's so difficult. Perspective will be taken in many years to come. Now we have four finals in the Premier League.

"I think in the game they had chances, this is a team with a game in hand that is higher than us in the Premier League so it's an extraordinary team.

"We expected them to create chances, they created maybe a little bit more than the game we played maybe there one or two months ago. The pace they have is really good, in general I like most of the things."