City brushed 14-time champions Real aside with a stunning performance at the Etihad. A brace from Bernardo Silva put the hosts on the brink before half-time.
An Eder Militao own goal and a late strike from Julian Alvarez added gloss to the win to set up a final against Inter Milan in Istanbul on June 10. Ferdinand was full of praise for City after the match and revealed he had contact with Guardiola earlier in the day.
He claimed Guardiola was extremely confident his side would win. A video posted by BT Sport showed Guardiola pointing towards Ferdinand in the aftermath of the victory and shouting “I told you, I told you.”
And the former defender explained why on BT Sport. He said: “He text me. Pep Guardiola text me before the game. I said ‘Good luck’ and he text me: ‘Listen, believe me, we beat them two years ago, we’ll beat them again. Believe’. I said ‘I believe you, I want to hope you do it’.”
Joleon Lescott intervened and said Ferdinand jokingly asked Guardiola to go easy on United in the FA Cup final next month. Lescott said: “No you’ve been planning to say that Rio! You showed me.
“You said ‘Can you get me some tickets for the final? And take it easy on my boys!'”
Ferdinand continued by explaining how the confidence of Guardiola in such a big game speaks volumes about the quality of his team and his belief to get a positive result. He added: “I just think the conviction that he had there, the confidence, that was just like two or three hours before the game.
“He’s sending me a text like that. That is pure confidence in the detail he’s gone through in the lead up to this game and the confidence he’s got in them players.”
City are on course to potentially win the treble and become just the second team in English football history to do so. Ferdinand put his United bias aside to pay tribute to the Champions League finalists.
He said: “Listen, I come from the other side of town – the red side – but you have to pay homage and you have to respect when you see class when you see a top-level performance at this level. Pep Guardiola’s got this side in formidable form at the perfect time – they’re purring now.
“They reeled in Arsenal with ease, coming from behind there with pure confidence and experience, and they’ve done it here to an experienced team with some devastating players, and put them to the sword and made them look like a team from a different class.”
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