Man City's slick control just too much for serial post-hitting Nottingham Forest

Semi-final number two : Picture by @YTJourno

FA Cup semi-final

Manchester City (1) 2 Lewis 2, Gvardiol 51

Nottingham Forest (0) 0

If walls of red noise and sheer fan numbers counted for anything, Forest would have been able to book their FA Cup final packages before a ball had been kicked.

Man City were having none of it.

They may have returned 9,000 unsold tickets, in contrast to stands packed to the rafters at the east end of the stadium, but City are still a mighty force, even in their currently diminished state.

Their fans may be jaded after 30-odd visits here during the Pep Guardiola years but the players looked like they really wanted this one.

They are not used to being out of the trophies and looked determined to ensure this campaign does not turn out to be totally barren after a surrender of the league title claimed four years in a row.

A statement of intent took only two minutes to materialise. Mateo Kovacic - the discarded Chelsea man who was outstanding throughout - drove purposefully into space to find Rico Lewis in just the right place inside the D to fire low into the bottom corner, beating the reach of Matz Sels.

Forest were frankly overwhelmed during the first half. Even without carving out chances, City's greater control and monopoly of the ball made it tough for the East Midlanders to get a foothold.

There was hope while the score was only 1-0 and soon after the restart, Anthony Elanga, on as a half-time replacement for Danilo, almost put away a low cross from Callum Hudson-Odoi.

But almost immediately it became 2-0 and it felt like game over. Forest were lucky when Zach Abbott handled a goalbound effort from Kovacic but escaped sanction. Yet from the resulting corner swinging in from Omar Marmoush, Josko Gvardiol rose highest at the far post to nod into the net.

Nuno Espirito Santo's team badly needed a moment of magic to give them hope and it so nearly came midway through the half when Morgan Gibbs-White connected beautifully with searching Elanga cross - only to see his sweet left-foot shot crash back off the crossbar. It was the first of three moments that did not go the way the underdogs needed it to go.

The unlucky Gibbs-White struck woodwork again moments later when he seized on a slack piece of play from Gvardiol and rounded Stefan Ortega - only to see his shot across the face of goal come back off the far post.

And it became a hat-trick of shots against the post when sub Taiwo Awoniyi saw his effort cannon back off the frame of the goal - with Gibbs-White's follow up header expertly turned aside by Ortega. It simply was not going to be their day.

For City, it means a third FA Cup final in a row and a chance to make up for last year's final defeat to Man United. The team they will have to overcome will be equally up for it, though. We saw from Crystal Palace's display yesterday that they mean to grab that first major trophy in their history, even if it's the still-awesome Man City standing in their way.

Citizens: (4-3-1-2) Ortega - Matheus Nunes, Ruben Dias, Gvardiol, O'Reilly - Lewis, Bernardo Silva, Kovacic (Gonzalez 89) - Grealish (Gundogan 71) - Savinho (Foden 81), Marmoush (Doku 81)

Forest: (4-4-2) Sels - Abbott (Sosa 81), Milenkovic, Murillo, Toffolo - Anderson (Sangare 71), Danilo (Elanga h/t), Dominguez (Jota Silva 82), Gibbs-White - Wood (Awoniyi 71) Hudson-Odoi

Attendance: 72,976