Guardiola’s tenth Champions League attempt without Messi

Date:

Under constant scrutiny, say the biggest critics Pep Guardiola the Champions every year almost as an inviolable duty, perhaps because of the wealth of personnel offered by the rich City, perhaps in opposition to his particular football ideology which he passionately expresses through ball and word. He was blamed for not being able to get rid of the stain of never lifting ‘Orejona’ since he moved from Barcelona and, therefore, was left without company Leo Messi. He managed to shed that stigma in the 2021 final, but Chelsea caught him.

Tonight, against Sevilla in Sanchez Pizjuan (21:00), Guardiola will begin his tenth attempt to lift that rebellious Champions League, a claim the fans of the ‘citizen’ raised almost out of obligation as soon as they had a real nine as Erling Halland after years of playing with a fake one. The arrival and immediate inclusion of the fiery Norwegian striker polished off almost the only imperfection of an already good squad that now also has a fine center specialist to crack. rival low block.

Through conjunction of its key players, experience, quality and the varied and abundant wealth that Pep has bestowed upon him, there is nothing more to ask for in this City than the Champions League for which he has been nicknamed -sometimes sarcastically-, as the ‘nouveau riche’ with PSG began to -rooted in the tradition of the highest continental competition in his first title, the European Cup that Guardiola immediately embraced with Barça in 2009 and 2011, that he was rejected at Bayern and that he continues to try out at the ‘Sky Blues’.

emotion control

When the ball wasn’t even spinning, Pep remembered the morals that the Champions League had taught him over the years. “More than tactics, you have to give a lot of importance to emotion in this competition,” Guardiola reflected in this Seville-City preview. And Pep knows that very well the emotional transcends the rational. The Champions League has taught him many times in the frenetic outcome of Madrid-City ‘semis’ last year as a bitter paradigm. The mystery of the Bernabéu may have logic and two goals of Rodrygo in one minute -with Benzema in extra time in 95′-, they wasted 0-1 and the work of 174, not sealed before the madness with missed opportunities that Me and Mendy canceled.

Not being able to control the madness that takes everything from you in an instant or not letting yourself be hypnotized by it once it’s unleashed must have been a big problem for Santpedor. All of Guardiola’s dismissals in the Champions League qualifiers away from Barcelona have been repeating pattern. The exception, the semifinals between Bayern and Atlético in 2016, the exaggeration, the Bernabéu episode. In almost all of them, Pep’s teams collapsed after conceding some short-term goals.

Multiple goals in minutes

Pep’s Champions League eliminations outside of Barça

1

2014: Bayern 0-4 Real Madrid (3 goals in 18 minutes)

two

2015: Barça 3-0 Bayern (3 goals in 17 minutes)

3

2016: Bayern-Atlético (2-1 after 1-0 in the first leg)

4

2017: Monaco 3-1 City (2 goals in 21 minutes)

5

2018: Liverpool 3-0 City (3 goals in 19 minutes)

6

2019: City 4-3 Tottenham (2 goals in 3 minutes)

7

2020: City 1-3 Lyon (2 goals in 8 minutes)

8

2022: Real Madrid 3-1 City (3 goals in 5 minutes)

The most painful precedent, and from which Guardiola always says he learned a lot, is the Bayern-Real Madrid in the semi-finals of 2014. Accelerated by the trembling and proud narrative of the Bavarian entourage going to Madrid after the 1-0 first leg – “they will burn in the trees”, said Rummenigge – Pep took many risks and Ancelotti’s team finished it in 18 minutes with two goals from Sergio Ramos (16′ and 20′) and another at 34′ of Christian, which ended it 0-4 in the 90th minute.

The following year, a fatal and short-lived succession of goals was carried out by Messi in the first leg of the semifinals at the Camp Nou of that Barça-Bayern (3-0) with the departure of the Argentine Boateng with only a gentle movement of the hips in the most memorable postcard. There were three goals in 17 minutes, two from Rosary beads (77′ and 80′) and one of the Neymar (94′) on the day of a special but at the same time unlucky to return to his temple.

The Champions could not be at Bayern and from 2017 Pep continued to suffer from rapid goal parades. In that 2017, in full bloom of the phenomenon Mbappe, Monaco paralyzed City with goals from the Frenchman and Fabinho in the 8th minute and 29th minute for the final 3-1 after 5-3 at the Etihad. In 2018, Liverpool, to the full joy of ‘rock and roll’ de Klopp swept the ‘Sky Blues’ in the first leg of the quarterfinals with three goals in 19 minutes in the first half from Salah (12′), Oxlade-Chamberlain (20′) and Mané (31′) for 3 – 0 ends.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4NBsc_-Vio

In the clash against Tottenham in the second leg of the 2019 quarterfinals, City responded to a double blow by ‘Spurs’ to beat Sterling’s goal with a brace from Son Heung Min (minutes 7 and 10), with a new goal from the English winger and another from Kun (3-2), but the controversial goal from Fernando Llorente in the 73rd minute for the final 4-3 after 1-0 of the idea and that the goal was nullified by Sterling’s discount. The lack of control once again spread to the City against lions in 2020, when two goals from Moussa Dembele in eight minutes (79′ and 87′) they sent the ‘citizen’ (1-3).

Even Pep has suffered from that evil even at Barça. In the first leg of the 2010 semi-finals against Mourinho’s Inter at San Siro: 3-1 loss, with goals in the 48th minute from Maicon and in the 61st from Diego Milito.

And in the 2021 final, Guardiola was accused of being pretentious in his approach for a dispensive defensive midfielder against Chelsea on a day when the neat ‘blue’ defensive perfection was instigated by Thomas Tuchel beat Guardiola-inspired ‘citizen’ showy attacking perfection. Certainly the biggest tactical reprimand that Pep has suffered with the approach of Bayern-Madrid 2014.

Pep also coaches his teams emotionally, as can be deduced from the ‘dissection’ he did Marty Pernarnau to him in his work ‘Pep Guardiola, la metamorphosis’. In one of the chapters, the one from Santpedor warns about the need to prepare big teams for bad scenarios, which are not so common for giants because success is their habit. The Catalan was applauded after the recent comeback match Crystal palace (4-2 after the first 0-2) that his team learned to overcome.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLWFWFRnYgg

Managing short-term defeat, in fact, is something City has assimilated into the Premiership. But he did not learn to live with the oppression of time in the Champions League, with a smaller margin of error than in a regular championship, even the unforgettable comeback against the Aston Villa On the last day of the last Premier League match worth the title -three goals from 75′ to 80′ to lift 0-2 just after the debacle at the Bernabéu-, they confirmed the spirit of the ‘citizens’.

Pep gave it and continues to give his clubs his all, especially with his high success percentage in the leagues -10 out of 13 possible-and all too football. There is the expansion of the figure of the false 9, the cultivation of other nuances such as the edge as another midfielder, the current release of the ball with the centrals and the closed sides that are very far from the ‘Lavolpiana’ where it started. . But, right or wrong, everything is also asked of him. The first thing, the rebel Champions.

Source: La Verdad

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Share post:

Subscribe

Popular

More like this
Related