Manchester City look to Real Madrid example to salvage dismal season
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Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola reacting after a 2-1 FA Cup win over Leyton Orient at Brisbane Road on Feb 8.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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LONDON – Manchester City need look no further than their perennial Champions League opponents Real Madrid for hope that Europe can still be conquered in the midst of a dire domestic season.
The sides meet in the Champions League for the fourth consecutive season, but this time much earlier in the competition, in large part due to City’s struggles.
Pep Guardiola’s men escaped an embarrassing early exit
City’s only victories in the competition this season have come against Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague and Club Brugge.
In between, they were comfortably beaten by Sporting Lisbon and Juventus, blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 at home to Feyenoord and conceded four times in the final 35 minutes at Paris Saint-Germain.
An unprecedented four-year run as English champions is also realistically coming to an end. A 5-1 humbling by Arsenal in their last English Premier League game left City 15 points adrift of leaders Liverpool and in a battle just to reach the Champions League next season.
So used to relentless success during a glittering managerial career, Guardiola has appeared powerless to halt a drastic decline.
The former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach has repeatedly labelled his side “fragile” and “old”, while he admitted after the signing of Nico Gonzalez
Guardiola said in January he was “a little bit scared to play these transitional games” due to City’s lack of physicality.
The spectre of a Real front four boasting an in-form Kylian Mbappe, Vinicius Jr, Rodrygo and Jude Bellingham is enough to give the City boss nightmares.
Coach Carlo Ancelotti deployed the quartet in a 1-1 La Liga draw against Atletico Madrid on Feb 8 and they worked hard when called upon to track back.
That has not always been the case, with veteran midfielder Luka Modric rowing with Vinicius last week in a 3-2 Copa del Rey quarter-final win over Leganes to get the Brazilian winger to help out more in defence.
“You always have to respect what Modric says,” said Ancelotti, siding with the 39-year-old Croat, and Vinicius seemed to take note.
Rodri will miss the tie despite being retained in City’s Champions League squad in the hope he could return from an anterior cruciate ligament tear before the end of the season.
But three new signings, Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Gonzalez, are free to face the Spanish champions, while City are further boosted by the return from injury of Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake and Jeremy Doku.
Real have their own injury troubles, with defenders Dani Carvajal, Eder Militao, David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger out.
Along with veteran Nacho’s departure last summer, they are short at the back.
That will be music to the ears of City striker Erling Haaland, who is back in form with seven goals in his last eight games across all competitions.
Real also lost three times in the league phase themselves to Lille, AC Milan and Liverpool to miss out on a top-eight finish that would have secured direct entry to the last 16.
But the 15-time winners are the masters at peaking when it matters in the Champions League.
In two of the three ties between the sides in the past three years, Real began as underdogs, were largely outplayed and yet still progressed at City’s expense.
“It has become a game that you see every year, whether that is in the quarter-finals, semi-finals and this year so early. So it is a big game and a fresh start for us,” said City defender Rico Lewis.
From 1966 to 2018, Real lifted the European Cup or Champions League eight times, despite only once winning La Liga in the same season. They have a record 15 titles in the continental tournament.
That is the example City now have to follow to try and turn a miserable season into a memorable one. AFP
