FA Cup: As final looms, Haaland says season has been ‘horrific’

Manchester: As “horrific” seasons go, Manchester City’s could still end on a high note.

While English soccer’s most dominant force for the past decade has been dispossessed of the Premier League crown, City’s campaign could finish with the FA Cup and the title of world champions.

City play Crystal Palace in the FA Cup final at Wembley on Saturday looking for some shine on a season that spectacularly unraveled late last year.

“This season has been tough,” striker Erling Haaland told the BBC. “It is not nice to lose so many games, it is boring and not fun. That’s why we need to finish well and get a trophy.

“We have the FA Cup final to play for and in a horrific season we still managed to do this and that says it all.”

City’s form has been so bad by its own remarkably high standards that Champions League qualification is still not certain with two rounds to go. But second place in the standings is still up for grabs, and the expanded Club World Cup kicks off in the United States next month and provides another opportunity for major silverware. But the club that won six of the previous seven Premier League titles — including an unprecedented four in a row and the Champions League as part of a trophy treble in 2023 — is not in the mood to celebrate.