Advertisement

Champions League Review - Manchester City revert to type in second leg

Manchester City revert to type

When the Champions League ties came around, something happened to Manchester City. Instead of running around as if disgusted by themselves and their lot in life, they were far more assured and confident. They weren’t perfect, but they were clearly superior from the same side that played in the Premier League. They didn’t match the limits of their potential and ability, but they didn’t embarrass themselves, and showed a maturity that they rarely did domestically.

As a result, they found themselves in the second leg of a Champions League semi-final, with the scores at 0-0. They had an almost fit Cristiano Ronaldo to deal with, but in the end it was Gareth Bale whose deflected shot put them behind. From that point, they needed to be at their best, but instead they were repeatedly opened up by Real, suffering for failing to settle their defence over the past two sentences. In attack, they were as wan as they ever have been under Manuel Pellegrini. The blame is not just with the players, but with their ineffective manager too, but they will have to consider what their poor showing for most of this year has meant, at precisely the time they needed to find their very best. Joe Hart claimed it was a lucky goal for Real, but there is nothing unlucky about not being good enough.

Ronaldo versus Messi is closer than it looks

Many people claim that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of all time, better even than Diego Maradona. That might be true, but let’s consider it for a few seconds. Maradona is an enormous tax cheat from his time at Napoli. Lionel Messi is an en… Is an enormously gifted player at Barcelona. Maradona hung out with the mafia and did his bodyweight in cocaine. He got assaulted regularly and played on pitches that resembled festival car parks. Lionel Messi sees specialists about his diets, plays on pitches that resemble snooker baizes, and is protected by referees to a much greater degree. Unless Messi was to start hanging out with whatever the Catalan equivalent of the Krays are, while shovelling chisel down his beak, all while breaking records and scoring goals, then judgement will have to be reserved for now.

On the other hand, the only modern day rival for him is Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, Ronaldo doesn’t have as many medals, but he is the best striker in the history of the Champions League. He has won league titles in England and Spain, and won Champions League titles with Manchester United’s last great team, and Real Madrid’s last facsimile of one.

But his scoring records have come, largely, when Real had a clown for a president and were hamstrung by a woeful transfer policy. Players and managers would battle with circumstances while Barcelona would move in one direction, together. Maradona was weighed down by drug abuse and organised crime. Ronaldo was weighed down by haplessness around him, and Messi had everything he needed, but still gets charged with crimes, mopes about like a goth, and gets accused of racist abuse by Royston Drenthe. Regardless of the outcome of Atletico vs Real, Ronaldo is ruled out of the comparison far too early.

Pep Guardiola will regard his time as a failure, but only because of all he has achieved before

Jose Mourinho took on Pep Guardiola and, eventually, he won. He broke Guardiola, the sophisticate, and made him eff and jeff like a normal human being. In doing so, he drove Guardiola to such distraction that he needed to take a year off managing, and a year of Europe, to go and learn what not being in football felt like again. Guardiola came back, relaxed again - unless you happened to be one of the club doctors - and started to try to build his next great team.

In the end, he fell slightly short of that. Given the expectations on Guardiola given his track record, given the money spent on his behalf, and given the players that Jupp Heynckes left him, it cannot be seen as anything other than a disappointment that he doesn’t have another Champions League medal. But, think of who else has won it. Barcelona, assisted by Luis Suarez, Lionel Messi and Neymar. Real Madrid with Cristiano Ronaldo trying to fulfil his destiny. In short, two great teams (one of which was essentially Guardiola-designed) was the opposition, and there is no disaster in failing to win the Champions League in those circumstances.

Against Atletico Madrid, the players complained that Atletico only scored on the rare occasions when they had the ball. They might, and Guardiola might, want to wonder about that. Having 70% of the ball is obviously handy, and with the very best players, the more they are on the ball, the better that is. But at the other end of the spectrum, if Daley Blind is on the ball a lot, that’s not going to help anybody. It’s too early to tell, but Guardiola might have found out that he had one great idea for one great team, and one very good idea for one very good one. His challenge at City will be to discover if he can take one pretty unimpressive squad, and come up with his greatest idea yet.

Atletico are straightforward, not boring

Greece under Otto Rehaggel. Manchester United under Louis van Gaal. Spain when they won the World Cup. Rafael Benitez with any side. Some sides are thoroughly dull, but that doesn’t mean they all have the same style, and it doesn’t give a clue about whether they’re any good or not. Spain were brilliant, but turned blood to dust. Greece were cynically effective, but it wasn’t worth watching unless you were Greek. Manchester United on the telly makes the paint in the room wet again, so you have to watch it dry again at the same time. And there’s no excuse for Benitez, ever.

After their defeat to Atletico, Bayern Munich reacted as only a Guardiola side could, with almost unmeasurable pomposity. Arturo Vidal said ugly football won. Karl-Heinz Rumennigge said that they were on the end of an unfair result. Nonsense. There’s little ugly about Atletico when they play like that. They foul like like yellow cards are worth more than goals. They obsess over defence like Migration Watch. And they counter-attack like they mean it, not willing to pass up the chance when it comes. They are ruthless, and they have the talent, guile and brawn to beat the best with it. They are not boring, they are a welcome relief from chalkboard pseuds and long-read obsessives.