May the best Man win

ROBERTO MANCINI warned Manchester United the gap is closing after his team booked a crunch FA Cup semi-final against their old rivals.

City's narrow win over Reading means they will go head to head with Alex Ferguson's men in the last four at Wembley in just under four weeks' time.

The Manchester rivals met at the same stage of the Carling Cup last season in what proved to be an explosive two-legged tie.

But Mancini insists his team have improved a lot since then and he believes there is little to choose between the sides.

The Italian saw his team win thanks to Micah Richards' second-half header.

Mancini said: "We are very close with all the top squads. We need to improve more, I think.

"Next year we will probably be at the same level.

"Manchester City are now very close to United.

"But it's important how we played the game at Old Trafford a month ago.

"We have improved a lot in the last year and we will keep improving.

"It showed this will be a great semi-final and we have a chance to go through, like them."

Mancini smiled when asked if his team will be out for revenge after Wayne Rooney's stunning late winner at Old Trafford last month.

They have suffered last-gasp heartache a couple of other times in the past two seasons and City will be looking to put the record straight.

Mancini said: "In football you meet your opponent two times a year minimum, sometimes three or four times.

"For me, it's a great semi-final.

"We know that semi-finals are always hard.

"I think for us it was important to win against Reading and, after that, it's not important who we meet in the semi-final or final.

"We are a good team and when we lose games we've played as a team and this is important.

"You can only improve if, when you lose, you understand what mistakes you have made."

Weary City looked to be feeling the effects of their long Europa League trip to Kiev in midweek as they were made to work hard by Reading.

The Championship play-off hopefuls looked as though they could even earn a replay at the Madejski Stadium until Richards popped up 16 minutes from the end to nod home the winner.

Mancini said: "You're always relieved. Three days ago, we had a hard match and this was another hard match.

"This is normal when we play every three days and we have four or five players injured - it's very hard.

"But I'm very happy for the supporters because they deserve to go to Wembley for this game.

"We're not fresh and we're not 100 per cent at this moment but we deserved to win this game.

"We had 17 attempts on goal and we deserved to win."

It was ironic that Richards should get the deciding goal as he awoke to reports of a bust-up with Mancini after the 2-0 defeat to Dinamo Kiev.

The England defender admitted strong words were exchanged and revealed: "Certain things were said after the game and tempers were raised.

"But we had just lost 2-0, so nobody was going to be happy. The main thing was we put it right today."

Now Mancini will order his troops to forget all about their crunch date with United and focus on their other two competitions.

They have a mountain to climb in their tie against Kiev in their return match at Eastlands on Thursday.

And they have key matches in their battle with Tottenham and Chelsea for the two remaining Champions League places.

Mancini said: "Before the semi we have important games against Kiev, Chelsea and, after that, Sunderland.

"We are happy for everyone at this moment, that's normal.

"But we have to play two games before we win the FA Cup."