Key events
1 min Here we go – again.
The more I look at this City team, the more it’s an old-skool Guardiola one, in a way – bodies in the middle of the pitch. Thing is, Madrid’s XI, with Diaz as a false nine and Guler on the wing, also has that potential.
Our teams are tunnelled … and here they come. How did we cope without pre-match light shows all those long, dark years?
“On your question of choosing one player for every position,” says Geoff Wignall, “surely it has to be someone who can control a game among other attributes, so Rooney and Gerrard are both ruled out.
I’d pick from Franz Beckenbauer, Ruud Gullit and Paul McGrath: if picking on St Patrick’s Day it’d probably have to be McGrath.”
Gullit is a good shout, but the other two on the wing? I can’t see it. Tangentially, though, McGrath’s eprformance in the 1985 FA Cup final is one of my all time favourites.
Jude Bellingham has travelled – we see him in his civvies – but he’s not considered fit enough to play. When he does return, I really, really hope we see him play the position he was born for – not a 10, nor a wide midfielder, but a box-to-box one-off, outrageous in all phases of the game whether taking the ball off the defence, carrying it forward, or creating and scoring. Anything else is a waste.
Gosh, Sporting have scored at the start of extra time. It’s hard to see Bodo coming back from this.
Is there a name for this garment Jon Champion’s in? I like to think it’s modelled on Inception – a coat with coat rather than a dream within a dream – or the Edgar Allan Poe poem.
In Lisbon, they’re getting ready to play extra time.
What’s eating Erling Haaland? What we’re seeing is actually a pattern – he fills his boots early in the season, then sows down later on – but he doesn’t have the same menace as once. I guess teams are wiser to him, standing off so he can’t ragdoll them physically, but because he’s reliant on service – he’s not a player able to create his own chances – the lack of cohesion around him his a problem. A player like him is good in a good team, but in one that’s struggling, his lack of general contribution is harder to wear.
Back to Valverde, Seedorf saw him as a kid when he was working at Depor and, after one training session, said stick him in the team and we’ll work out the rest later. Game recognises game, and actually, the two aren’t totally dissimilar as players, monstrous athletes with technical ability and perfect mentality. Every now and again, I play the if you had to one player in every position, who would it be game. For years, it was close between Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney – I’d go Rooney because he’s meant to be a great keeper – but now, it could well be Valverde, but feel free to send in other options.
“For all the talk last week about City’s line-up,” begins Andrew Goudie, “their structure, set-pieces, individual performances, etc, the fact remains that with Federico Valverde even Spurs would have won 3-0.”
City actually started the game in the ascendancy but, as you imply, Valverde had a night from the gods. As we said at the top, though, Madrid are set up for that, and in that game, it just so happened to be him.
So where is the game? City will want to set Doku at Alexander-Arnold, who doesn’t have the defensive chops or recovery pace to combat him if he’s at it. They’ll also ask Cherki to wander about, looking to slide Haaland in, while trying to open shooting lanes for himself from 15-22 yards. And if he’s infield, Nunes and Bernardo will move to hold the width, stretching the Madrid defence.
Madrid, meanwhile, will be content to play on the counter, knowing they’ve Mbappe back on the bench for later on, They know Nunes isn’t a defender, so Vinicius will look to get at him one on one, with Diaz dropping to make an extra an in midfield and Valverde running on, perhaps as Guler drops too. I’d not be surprised if, for much of the game, Dias and Khusanov have no one to mark, with Madrid looking to come central from wide, making it harder for their attackers to be marked.
Penalty to Sporting … and it’s there! With 12 to go, they’re now level at 3-3 on aggregate with Bodo.
On the telly, they’re talking about this game. It’s up there with Juventus 2-3 Man United as the best European performances British teams have delivered in my lifetime.
Email! “Pep’s kinda washed and we should just say it,” says Christopher Flaherty. “Hemming and hawking about staying, no clear vision for the future … further decline is more likely than another revolution.”
I know what you mean – the drift has been a few seasons now, and it doesn’t feel like he’s on the cusp. But it’s also the case that the game has changed, so it’s harder to play the kind of dominant football he’s into, and it’s taking a while for him fathom a new idea, so we’re still in the trial and error stage.
I love hearing players describe football in a language that isn’t their own because they use such interesting vocabulary. Talking about how Fede Valverde works for the team, Clarence Seedorf has just said “he’s so generous”. Beautiful.
In Lisbon, Sporting lead Bodo 2-0 on the night, trailing 3-2 on aggregate. Can everyone’s favourite second team hold on? Scott Murray will let you know.
Back to the City side, I’m surprised Guehi has been left out – I’m not certain what Khusanov offers he does not – perhaps his recovery-tackling is the difference – and Guehi has the edge in experience. At right-back, Nunes has the savvy O’Reilly has yet to learn – he was a little exposed in the Bernabeu – while Reijnders, who I expected to play in Spain, offers runs in behind and ball-carrying in the middle of the pitch. And finally, Guardiola has perhaps decided his XI can only wear one player who does not much but score, so the wizardry of Cherki is preferred to the goal-power of Semenyo.
“The toughest one,” he says of the challenge awaiting his team tonight. The team have some history behind them, having done many good things over the years, but he thinks they’re compact when asked if that’s an area in which they need to improve.
On the XI, he wants them to move the ball and impose their game – they’ve got attacking quality and more on the bench. They need to give Haaland passes, play football, and when they see how the game goes, decide on what they have to do.
We’ll talk about what all that means in a moment, but first, here’s Guardiola…
City make four changes from the first leg: out go Guehi, O’Reilly, Savio and Semenyo, with Khusanov, Nunes, Reijnders and Cherki coming in.
Just the one alteration for Madrid: Fran replaces the injured Mendy.
Teams
Manchester City (4-3-3): Donnarumma; Nunes, Khusanov, Dias, Ait-Nouri; Rodri, Reijnders, Bernardo; Cherki, Haaland, Doku. Subs: Trafford, Stones, Ake, Marmoush, Kovacic, Nico, Guéhi, Savinho, O’Reilly, Semenyo, Foden, Lewis.
Real Madrid (4-3-3): Courteous; Alexander-Arnold, Rudiger, Huijsen, Fran Garcia; Valverde, Thiago, Tchouameni, Guler, Diaz, Vinicius Jr. Subs: Lunin, Carvajal, Alaba, Camavinga, Mbappe, Gonzalo, Carreras, Mastantuano, Aguado, Cestero, Angel, Palacios.
Referee: Clément Turpin (France)
Preamble
In one way or another, most stories are about identity: roughly, who are we and we cool with that? Well, our teams tonight arrive at this game as potential protagonists, both in something of quandary.
City are in between teams, problem being they’ve been there a while and it’s not exactly clear what sort of one they’d like to become. A few years ago now, Pep Guardiola experienced a revelation –physicality and good defending are necessary when you no longer have Lionel Messi and the best midfield of all time – winning his first Champions League since those days as a consequence. But without Kevin De Bruyne, John Stones and that version of Rodri, he’s scrabbling for a new way, ingredients for a possession team that’s also a power team not easily come by. Never has it been harder to predict who Guardiola will pick or how they’ll try to play – and not in a good way.
Madrid, meanwhile, also don’t have a collective identity, but mainly because they don’t want one – so much so that when Xabi Alonso tried to impose one on them, they imposed unemployment on him. Instead, the personality of the team is the personality of whichever among its ensemble finds main-character energy on any given day – last week it was Fede Valverde, but tonight it might just as easily be no one.
Or, in other words, City winning 3-0 seems possible, likewise Madrid losing 3-0, the difference between their best and worst significant – which is why neither looks likely to win their domestic league. The greatest teams – and players – are not those with the highest top level but the highest bottom and modal levels, so no one will be lauding either of these as anything special. But there’s enough about them that’s potentially special such that, through the course of this match and competition, they might just happen upon a hero’s journey that shows them who they are and who they have to be.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT
