City lock horns with the Reds on Saturday 16 April for a spot in this season’s Wembley showpiece having played out a thrilling 2-2 Premier League draw last Sunday.
Sandwiched between those two fixtures, Pep Guardiola’s men staved off the challenge of Atletico Madrid to secure passage to the Champions League semi-finals.
And if City can reach the FA Cup final for the first time since 2019, Laporte believes this week will rank highly among his biggest achievements at the Club.
“I think we have to go step by step, like we have done in the last years,” the Spaniard said.
“We have the team to go to the end to win everything, but we know exactly where we are, and we know we are fighting in three competitions.
“We know that it will be tough, but I think that we can do it and we will go for that. [This week] is something amazing that we probably don’t realise right now.
“I think if everything goes how we want then it can be one of the greatest weeks as a professional.
“We have to keep focused, keep doing what we are doing and hopefully we can win the matches. When you win a match, it is always easier and right now I feel fresh.”
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It’s a quick turnaround for City, with Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final coming just three days after our Champions League last eight second leg away to Atletico Madrid.
The reward for our 1-0 aggregate victory over Atleti is a date with 13-time champions Real Madrid for a spot in the final against one of Liverpool or Villarreal.
Laporte is braced for a difficult assignment against Los Blancos but insists City will continue to approach the final furlongs of the 2021/22 campaign on a game by game basis.
He said of facing Madrid: “We expect a very tough game. We know exactly what they have done in this competition.
“They have done unbelievable matches in the last days. It is unbelievable but we have to keep improving and practice our work like in the last few years.
“We have done very well and I am sure we can beat them. It’s always difficult playing a Champions League semi-final regardless of the opponent.
“We will have to fight hard as usual and we will try to go through to another final. We know them [Real Madrid].
“We have played against them in the last few years. We need to focus on our next game this weekend and later we will have time to prepare to face them.
“We have lots of important games ahead before facing Real Madrid. We must not lose focus, because we are alive in three competitions and all of them are important to us.
“Every game as of now is going to be a final and we will try to win them all.”
Holding a one-goal advantage heading into Wednesday’s Champions League quarter-final second leg, City knew we would be pushed to our limits at Atletico Madrid.
But despite an onslaught of pressure from the hosts in the second 45, Guardiola’s men weathered the storm to get the draw we needed.
And while Laporte admits City weren’t at our typical best at the Wanda Metropolitano, he believes the manner in which we ground out the result showed how we have developed in recent years.
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“All the games we play in the Champions League help us to learn and to grow as a team,” he pointed out.
“We haven’t played our best game in the second half, but we learn from our experience in previous occasions how to keep the result and go through to the next round.
“I think we have matured as a team, and we have worked well as a team.
“We have suffered in the last minutes of the game, but we have done the things well and kept a clean sheet.
“I’m very pleased with the team performance and so happy to go through to the semi-finals.”
