STEVE DOUGLAS
Manchester City and Liverpool just can’t be kept apart this season.
Engaged in yet another tight tussle for the Premier League title, the two rivals from northwest England must now squeeze an FA Cup semifinal meeting into their busy end-of-season schedules.
Both won away matches in the quarterfinals Sunday — City outlasted Southampton 4-1 and Liverpool edged past second-tier Nottingham Forest 1-0 — and were paired in the draw for the last four.
It means the top two teams in the country will clash in the league at City’s Etihad Stadium on April 10 — City currently leads Liverpool by one point in a fascinating title race — and then in the FA Cup semifinals at Wembley Stadium on the weekend of April 16-17.
In and around those games are a pair of Champions League quarterfinal legs for each of them, with City taking on Spanish champion Atletico Madrid and Liverpool facing Benfica.
It could be a make-or-break period of the season, with squad strength and player rotation proving key.
The other FA Cup semifinal match will be a London derby between Chelsea and Crystal Palace, which thrashed Everton 4-0 on Sunday to reach the last four for the first time since 2016.
City is in the semifinals for a fourth straight season but only after a flurry of second-half goals against Southampton, which again caused problems for Pep Guardiola’s team, having already drawn twice in the league.
Frustration was building for City at 1-1 when the visitors won a penalty that was converted in the 62nd minute by Kevin De Bruyne, before goals by substitutes Phil Foden and Riyad Mahrez in the space of four minutes from the 75th added gloss to the scoreline at St. Mary’s Stadium.
City defender Aymeric Laporte’s own-goal had canceled out Raheem Sterling’s opener in the first half.
City has lost in the semifinals in the past two seasons, to Arsenal then Chelsea.
Liverpool’s improbable bid for a quadruple of trophies remains on course thanks to Diogo Jota’s 78th-minute winner against Forest.
Forest had beaten the previous two winners of the competition — Arsenal and Leicester — in earlier rounds and gave Liverpool a big scare at the City Ground.
Forest left 97 seats vacant for the game to honor the Liverpool fans who died as a result of a crush at Hillsborough Stadium in the FA Cup semifinals in April 1989, when the two sides last met in the competition.
While Forest can now focus on its quest to return to the Premier League for the first time since 1999, Liverpool is still fighting for trophies on three fronts — having already captured the League Cup. MDT/AP
