27 May 2023 , 21:30
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Nathan Ake has warned his Manchester City team-mates that another dodgy derby decision cannot be allowed to derail their treble bid at Wembley.
City face Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3 - and a victory would send them to the Champions League final seven days later with the chance to emulate the Red Devil's 1999 history makers. Pep Guardiola's side take on Inter Milan in Istanbul.
As it stands, United are the only team in history to win the Premier League title, Champions League and FA Cup in the same season - doing so under Sir Alex Ferguson 24 years ago. City have a golden opportunity to emulate that feat over the next two weeks.
Guardiola's men suffered a shock defeat at Old Trafford in January when a controversial goal from Bruno Fernandes was allowed to stand, despite Marcus Rashford clearly being in an offside position. Rashford then bagged a late winner a few minutes later.
Ake said: "I think it was a learning curve. Because after the goal was given, we lost ourselves a little bit. We wanted to score straight away. We didn’t focus any more and that is why we conceded the second one and lost the game.
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"I think we have learned from that moment, not to panic when things like this happen. This kind of thing is going to happen in the future as well, so it is about how we react because on this occasion we didn’t react well."
Nathan Ake is confident of completing a treble this season (Getty Images)Do you think Manchester City will complete a treble? Let us know in the comments below!
Ake, 28, has been outstanding for City this season after Guardiola rejected a bid from Chelsea to take the Dutch defender back to Stamford Bridge last summer. The Netherlands international came through the ranks at Chelsea just over a decade ago.
Ake has missed the last five games after damaging his hamstring against Leeds, but is back in full training and in line to feature at Brentford. He added: "The team has done really well and Manu [Akanji] is playing very well at left-back.
"So for me the focus is on myself to make sure I am 100 percent fit and available to the manager. It is then up to him to make the decision. Whatever he does is good for the team and the only thing we think about as players now is just to win the titles."
Erik ten Hag, meanwhile, is desperate to stop City's treble bid by winning the "huge" FA Cup. The United boss can devote much of his attention to next weekend's final after securing a top-four finish in the Premier League and Champions League football.
Ten Hag said: "When I came here one year ago I said we wanted to win trophies... when there's an opportunity to win a trophy, for every player it's massive. I had a count and there are not so many players in our squad who have won the FA Cup. It is huge.
"The FA Cup is all over the world. It is global wide with a huge reputation. We have an opportunity to win it. We are realistic that it's not going to be easy, but I can assure we will give everything in our power to get the cup."