Pep Guardiola says he continues to be surprised by City’s ability to keep on challenging for trophies.

City secured a place in the FA Cup final against Manchester United for a second successive season following our 1-0 victory over Chelsea at Wembley.

That win came just days after the emotional Champions League exit to Real Madrid after a penalty shootout ended our hopes of another European triumph.

The defeat was physically and mentally draining but ahead of our Premier League clash with Brighton at 20:00 (UK) on Thursday, Guardiola says his side have unbelievable fight.

“Science says you need a certain time to recover,” he said. “In many things, not just physicality but mentally too.

“For many years, we haven’t given it to them. But still we are there, and I’m really impressed.

“I think we will fall down, this time it will not be possible and still they make it possible.

“I will reflect my period here, always I will admire these types of players. They find a way to still be there. This is unbelievable.”

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The City boss says the squad have shown grit and determination throughout his time with the Club as well as showing our quality on the pitch.

And he says that this season has been very similar to other seasons, including record-breaking campaigns winning the Treble, the title by 100 points and every domestic trophy.

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“People talk about the Treble last season, but I don’t know how many finals or semi-finals in a row we have done in the FA Cup, the last few seasons maybe four or five in a row,” Guardiola said.

“That defines this club. This group of players, four Carabao Cups in a row, that defines this club. The latter stages of the Champions League when we broke that situation and the way we compete in this competition.

“We didn’t lose one game in the Champions League this season. We are out and we didn’t lose one game. Even with that, and the problems that we had, which every club has, still with that we are there.

“We try to extend one more week the Champions League. One more week, the chance tomorrow will be exactly one month until the end of the season.

“Just four weeks. On the 25th of next month, we will play the final game of the season against United in the FA Cup. We will give everything that we have I don’t know how much it is, but we will try to match our level of performance.”

With our FA Cup semi-final victory, Arsenal and Liverpool have used their games to leapfrog over us at the top of the Premier League.

But Guardiola says they knew exactly what we need to do to win the title, and those results have not changed anything.

“They gave us a chance the fact that they lost in the last weeks to Aston Villa and Crystal Palace,” he added.

“But we knew exactly what we needed to do before that.

“We have to win all games to have the chance in our hands to retain the title.

“Nothing changes in the fact of what we should do before [those results] nothing changes.”