Pep Guardiola praised Antoine Semenyo for being in the right place to score a ‘scrappy’ winner in Manchester City’s 1-0 win at Newcastle.
City took control of their Carabao Cup semi-final tie with a hard-fought first-leg win at St James’ Park.
After a goal and assist on his debut at the weekend, Semenyo was on the scoresheet again. The £62.5m January signing turned in from close range just after the hour, following Tijjani Reijnders’ set-piece delivery. Semenyo’s goal made it 12 in all competitions this season for City and former club Bournemouth.
Two in two for @antoinesemenyo 😮💨✨ pic.twitter.com/5epxTTPwrP
— Manchester City (@ManCity) January 13, 2026
Guardiola was delighted with the 26-year-old’s effort, insisting he encourages the club’s wide players to repeatedly get into good goalscoring positions.
“I think at Bournemouth with Iraola he improved a lot with these kinds of scrappy goals; from the opposite side arriving to the box – Leroy [Sane], especially Raheem [Sterling], were extraordinary with that,” the Spaniard said on Semenyo’s goal.
“Jeremy [Doku] we always push that he has to arrive to the box… Savio, the wingers, we always encourage them to arrive there. It’s really important.
To score goals, there is no secret – you have to bring people in front of the goal. There are no secrets about that. We made one goal, and another one was not considered…”
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