Fans fume at Pep Guardiola over Coventry remark ahead of FA Cup semi-finals

Fans have criticised Pep Guardiola over a comment he made about Championship side Coventry ahead of next month's FA Cup semi-finals.

The Sky Blues reached the last four of the FA Cup via a 3-2 win over Wolves at Molineux, with strikers Ellis Simms and Haji Wright scoring in second half stoppage time.

Their final fixture before taking on Manchester United in the semi-final comes on Saturday, April 13, when they take on Birmingham at St Andrew's.

City, meanwhile, are in action four days later on the Wednesday as they face Real Madrid in the Champions League, before their FA Cup semi-final against Chelsea on Saturday.

And Guardiola took aim at the fixture schedule in his latest press conference.

You can listen to what he said below.

He explained: "Coventry, United, Chelsea are on holidays one week [before their semi-final].

"Every year we play Saturday. Why not give us one more day where they don't play? Coventry don't play Champions League. Chelsea don't play Champions League. United don't play Champions League.

"Why not [City] play on Sunday? For the broadcasters.

"After that, we play Thursday. Why not play Wednesday? It's Thursday and Sunday, why not play Wednesday?

"We will go to London to play Chelsea [in the FA Cup], Chelsea will not come here. We go to London, five hours. No problem, we will go there."

Even though Coventry aren't in the Champions League, the fact that there are four more teams in the Championship than the Premier League means that they play 46 league games - eight more than City.

And those games often fall on a midweek, occasionally on weeks where there is no European competition.

However, there is no midweek game between the Birmingham fixture and their trip to Wembley - and City are scheduled to play four more games than the Sky Blues this season at present.

Fans, though, were quick to call Guardiola out on social media.

One wrote: "We play two games a week all season."

A second argued: "Coventry play 46 games... and City have 25 Premier League standard players, so use them."

Another said: "Southampton [in the Championship] have nine games left in the next 26 days..."

And a fourth wrote: "If only you had hundreds of millions and a top academy to build a squad capable of handling the volume of games."

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This year has been Coventry's longest run in the competition since 1987, when they beat Tottenham at Wembley to lift the cup, and last season's losing Championship play-off finalists will take on United at the same venue on April 21.

Mark Robins' side have carried momentum from that win over Wolves into the league, beating strugglers Huddersfield 3-1 on Good Friday to record their third consecutive victory.

They are now in seventh place, four points behind Norwich with a game in hand in the race for the final play-off spot.