Liverpool hangs on for 3-2 FA Cup semi win over City

LONDON (Reuters): Liverpool hung on to beat Manchester City 3-2 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday to reach the final of the FA Cup and end Pep Guardiola's hopes of a treble.

Juergen Klopp's side will meet the winners of Sunday's other semi-final between Chelsea and Crystal Palace in the 14 May final as they keep alive their dream of an unprecedented quadruple.

Guardiola opted to rest several of Premier League leader City's starters, including goalkeeper Ederson, and the weakened side was outplayed by Klopp's team in the first half, going in 3-0 down at the interval.

Although City scored at the start and end of the second half their weakened line-up never really did enough to win the game against opponents, they drew 2-2 in the Premier League last week. “Absolutely proud, incredible, I think the first half was one of the best we ever played,” said Klopp.

“We did all the right stuff, we scored in the right moments, we played an incredible game in the first half, I really loved each second of it,” he added.

Ibrahima Konate headed Liverpool ahead from an Andy Robertson corner in the ninth minute before a dreadful error from City's American backup goalkeeper Zack Steffen gifted the Reds a second.

Steffen took too long when receiving a back pass from John Stones and Sadio Mane slid in to tackle the keeper and the ball flew into the net.

Mane then added another, on the stroke of halftime, in a more conventional fashion, driving a volley past Steffen after being set up by Thiago Alcantara.