MAN CITY 1, BRIGHTON 0
Gabriel Jesus fired Manchester City into the final of the Emirates FA Cup as the historic quadruple remains in their sights.
This was a decidedly off-colour City who produced one of their least convincing displays of the season.
If City thought Jesus’ fourth-minute goal would be the catalyst for another landslide victory they were mistaken.
This was one of their toughest games of the season as a gritty and gutsy Brighton made them battle all the way to the final whistle.
It was far harder than the statistics revealed – 70 per cent possession indicated they were in near total control.
Brighton, who have now lost on all four visits to Wembley, restricted City to 13 goal attempts whereas they carved out 27 chances against Cardiff City in midweek.
And an animated Pep Guardiola showed he was unable to relax as not many of his players performed with distinction.
Embed from Getty ImagesCity were without the injured Sergio Aguero and Oleksandr Zinchenko.
Guardiola clearly had eyes of the Champions League quarter final at Tottenham on Tuesday as Fernandinho, Leroy Sane, John Stones and Riyad Mahrez were on the bench.
There was a first start since November for Benjamin Mendy at left back while Jesus was the focal point of the front line.
Brighton were up against it from the fourth minute when City made an early breakthrough.
A sweeping move ended with Kevin De Bruyne crossing from the right for Jesus, who stole in front of Shane Duffy, to find the net with a far post diving header from inside the six-yard box, his 18th goal of the season for City.
Brighton’s game plan had already been blown apart and, from this early stage, they needed a new strategy to get back into the match, no easy feat for Chris Hughton.
Kyle Walker and Alireza Jahanbakhsh were both booked following a clash with VAR asked to determine whether it was a red card as their heads made contact with one another.
But VAR official Paul Tierney decided yellow cards were sufficient punishment.
City made a change at the break as Walker, who had been walking a disciplinary tightrope, was taken off and replaced by Danilo who was booked within minutes.
Brighton made a storming start to the second period and came close to equalising when City failed to clear an Anthony Knockaert corner which keeper Ederson failed to gather under pressure from Shane Duffy.
The ball dropped a couple of yards from goal and Aymeric Laporte hoisted it over the bar for a corner with Glenn Murray waiting for a simple tap-in.
City certainly weren’t dominating play as they had done on the opening period as Brighton sensed a way back into the game.
Raheem Sterling forced a decent diving save from Mathew Ryan, a rare moment when City looked like extending their lead.
And in a bid to provide more midfield bite, Fernandinho was summoned midway through the half as he replaced De Bruyne.
City made their last change with 11 minutes left when Mendy was replaced by Stones.
City should have doubled their lead in stoppage time with Brighton committed to attack.
They broke 2 v 1 and Jesus squared the ball to Sterling who was free but he shot straight at Ryan.
And it was a measure of how City were holding on to their slender lead that in the dying stages they were playing keep ball in the corner.