They kept faith with seven of the starters who faced Real and lost two of their fresher players to injury. No wonder they weren't at their best at Wembley. They didn't need to be.
The fact that they still reached a second successive FA Cup final despite all those challenges shows what kind of a team Pep Guardiola has created.
"You are tired? F*** you," he famously said in the Amazon documentary a few years back and he was unimpressed with Rodri's public complaints of tiredness earlier this month.
He dismissed the idea that the tight turnaround this week would be an excuse, insisting his side would deal with it.
Kevin de Bruyne was 'exhausted' and asked to come off against Madrid but here he was playing 90 minutes at Wembley. He's still not back to his best and the scope for him to get a much-needed rest to reset is non-existent. But for all his on-pitch frustrations and a fair few misplaced passes, he was at the heart of City's winning goal.
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