I had feeling Manchester City were ready to deliver, says Pep Guardiola after thumping Real Madrid
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Bernardo Silva of Manchester City celebrates after scoring the 2-0 goal.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
LONDON – Manchester City were perfectly prepared with the right mix of calmness and tension for their Champions League semi-final against Real Madrid, manager Pep Guardiola said.
The English champions dismantled the holders 4-0 with a ruthless display in the second leg on Wednesday to secure a 5-1 aggregate win and reach the final against Inter Milan on June 10, when they will bid to win European club football’s most prestigious trophy for the first time.
It was sweet revenge for a painful semi-final loss to Real 12 months ago, after the La Liga outfit won 6-5 on aggregate following an extraordinary late comeback.
“I had the feeling these last days that we had a mix of calm and tension to play these type of games,” said Guardiola.
“And after 10 or 15 minutes, I had the feeling that all the pain that we had, what happened last season... it was really tough, losing the way we lost and in the moment, we had to swallow poison.
“In sport, obviously you have another chance and when the draw was Madrid, I said, ‘Yeah, I want it’.”
Bernardo Silva netted a first-half double to put City in control and, after Erling Haaland failed to convert two gilt-edged chances, Manuel Akanji and Julian Alvarez completed the rout.
Said attacker Jack Grealish: “Unbelievable. Just to be in this moment is so nice. I don’t think many teams can do that to Real Madrid but when we’re all together and playing, especially at home, we feel unstoppable...
“When we play here in front of our fans, we feel unstoppable. Even in the league, we feel nobody can beat us. You see what we’ve done to Bayern Munich, Leipzig and tonight, it’s unbelievable.”
Real arrived with history on their side as title-holders and record 14-time European champions.
But City completed 124 passes in the first 15 minutes with nearly 80 per cent of possession, while Real were restricted to just 13 passes, Uefa stats showed.
Said Real goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois: “From the start, we expected them to press and not let us play our way out with the ball. They pushed a lot of players up to keep us in our box. Initially we managed it well, but we weren’t able to play our game, create chances or cause them danger.”
His coach Carlo Ancelotti added: “They played better than us and deserved to win. They put a lot of pressure at the beginning... they made it very difficult for us to get the ball in play and they went two goals ahead. From then on, it was difficult to get back into the game.”
City, buoyed by an unbeaten 23-game run in all competitions, had not lost in 26 Champions League matches at the Etihad Stadium, which was a writhing sea of sky blue for the visit of the Spanish giants.
They had played the 2021 semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain in Manchester with no fans in attendance due to the Covid-19 pandemic and this time the players stayed on the pitch long after the final whistle to celebrate, with Haaland wearing a Norwegian flag draped around his shoulders.
“(Tonight was) much, much better. I felt, I don’t know why, you smelt that the team was ready to compete at the level that they competed today,” Guardiola said.
City are three wins away from a treble as they play Manchester United in the FA Cup final on June 3 and could win the English Premier League as early as Saturday.
Guardiola said the players, staff and families would gather for a team breakfast before enjoying a day off on Thursday ahead of their preparations for their final push to clinch the Premier League title.
Victory over Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul would secure the one trophy Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mansour has craved since buying City in 2008, having lost to Chelsea two years ago in their only previous appearance in the final. REUTERS, AFP