62 2GM Friday August 7 2020 | the times
SportChampions League
Champions League , Round of 16,
second leg. Kick-off 8pm
Referee Felix Brych (Germany)
Man City (probable; 4-3-3)Man City v Real MadridReal Madrid (probable; 4-3-3)K De Bruyne D SilvaR SterlingRodriK Walker E García A Laporte J CanceloR Mahrez G JesusEdersonT CourtoisE Hazard K Benzema Vinícius JuniorT Kroos Casemiro L ModricF Mendy E Militão R Varane D CarvajalManchester City supporters have had
the privilege of watching some
incredible football over the past four
years but at times their fingernails have
taken a hammering too.
When it comes to the knockout
stages of the Champions League, City,
sometimes, have had a propensity to
lose their heads. The handbrake comes
off and the control they have so expert-
ly exhibited in most league matches
under Pep Guardiola goes missing.
The first leg of the quarter-final tie
against Liverpool in the spring of 2018 is
a perfect example. Before that night at
Anfield, City had conceded just 21 goals
in 31 league matches. They were play-
ing some extraordinary football, and
yet within the space of 19 chaotic min-
utes they let in three goals, all from
shoddy defending, and Liverpool were
effectively in the next round.
At the same stage the following
season City went to pieces defensively
again, allowing Son Heung-min to
score twice in three minutes to edge
Tottenham Hotspur into the semi-fi-
nals on away goals despite Guardiola’s
team scoring four on the night.
In Guardiola’s first season, City con-
ceded six times across two topsy-turvy
knockout games against Monaco and
exited the competition on away goals.
During Guardiola’s four years as
manager he has often spoken about
City not being on a par with clubs such
as Juventus, Bayern Munich, Barcelona
and Real Madrid when it comes to their
Champions League pedigree. He
regards Real, who they play tonight in
the second leg of their round-of-16 tie at
the Etihad Stadium, above all others.
“They are the kings of Europe,”
Guardiola said in February. That is
because those elite teams like Real
rarely lose their heads in the latter
stages of the competition. In the 2016
Champions League final in Milan,
Atletico Madrid performed better than
their neighbours. Atletico had more
shots and a larger share of possession
inside the 90 minutes but Real still
managed to win on penalties. Real have
won four of the past six Champions
Leagues not because they are techni-
cally superior — they are not — but
because they possess an elite mentality
that City must match in the coming
weeks if they are to lift the trophy for
the first time.
“Yes, definitely,” Guardiola said when
asked if his team’s lack of control in big
games worried him. “More than
conceding goals, it’s the way we conced-
ed them. If they are brilliant we have to
accept them but most of those goals we
could avoid.
“When you make mistakes like we
have in this competition you get
punished a lot. We know it. We’ve spo-
ken about it a lot, not in the last few
weeks, but in the last few years we have
done it many times in important games
like this, and if we want to make a step
forward as a team to be close to winning
this competition, we have to be better in
this area.”
The good news for Guardiola is that
City did show this kind of strong men-
tality in the first leg in February. The
Real fans twirled their white scarves
and sang loudly as they took great
pleasure in watching their team go 1-0
up against Catalonia’s most heraldedcoach, but City did not crumble. They
remained calm and trampled Zinédine
Zidane’s team, winning 2-1. Kevin De
Bruyne made Luka Modric look like a
has-been, Gabriel Jesus put in a mature
and tactically astute performance
while Rodri and Ilkay Gündogan of-
fered protection to City’s defence. After
their title win, Real may be a different
animal to the one that flopped in Febru-
ary but Guardiola looked particularly
confident yesterday. The answer he
gave to every question in his press con-
ference was delivered with a fixed gaze.
He was very much in the zone.
“I have the feeling now that we are
ready to put in a good performance and
win the game,” he said. “I have that
feeling. We are ready.”
Guardiola is in a confident mood
because of the work that he and his staff
have put in recently. They have pored
over each of Real’s post-lockdown
matches and they have also analysed
games earlier in the campaign in which
Éder Militão partnered Raphaël Var-
ane in defence, because Sergio Ramos
is suspended tonight.
Guardiola’s players are certainly well
prepared, too. They had one day off
after the final match of the league
season against Norwich City and then
they were back in training, working on
a plan to overcome Real again.
Do not be surprised if Guardiola goes
left field with his team selection, how-
ever. He played 4-4-2 with De Bruyne
and Bernardo Silva as false nines in
Madrid. At Anfield a couple of years
ago, Gündogan was deployed on the
wing. Zidane has form for mixing his
team up in big games too.
The mystery of the team selections is
just another interesting aspect of what
promises to be a fascinating match.
“It’s difficult to know what he
[Zidane] is going to do,” Guardiola said.
“When you think you’ve got one of his
tactical plans covered, he’ll hit you with
another.”So, where were we? Oh yes, a Real
Madrid sunk, outwitted, unfit,
inadequately coached and hurtling to
ignominy. “Goodbye Zidane,”
suggested a headline in El Mundo the
morning after Manchester City went to
the Bernabéu and won 2-1. Other prints
readied themselves for an Adiós a la
Liga, because Barcelona were due in
town that weekend, to probably widen
the gap between their first place and
ragged Real’s second.
Thus was the landscape on February
26, a time when crowds still went to
football, and madridistas to their
city-centre bearpit ready to boo their
own at the slightest provocation.
Vinícius Junior, the Brazilian teenager,
heard some deep groans that night
against City; Thibaut Courtois, after aReal firing on all
difficult autumn and winter, anticipat-
ed jeers. Thankfully for Real, 1-0 ahead
until the 78th minute, Courtois spared a
heavier City ambush. Still, any notion
of them reversing momentum in the
away leg, with Karim Benzema on only
one goal in his past ten games, seemed
fanciful.
All of which sounds like ancient
history, a scenario retold in sepia. One-
hundred-and-sixty-three days after
Real lost at home to City, they are
Spain’s champions. Calamity Courtois
has just finished La Liga as the finest
goalkeeper in the land, blunted Benze-
ma is a hotshot No 9, Zinédine Zidane is
the light-touch Midas of the technical
area and the Real left dishevelled by
City will approach tonight’s second leg
with what looks like a Stakhanovite
resilience. They have played 11 matches
since the June restart; they have wonIan HawkeyManchester City’s preparations for
their biggest match of their season were
dealt a blow yesterday when rising star
Eric García told them he wants to leave
the club for Barcelona.
Ahead of tonight’s Champions
League round-of-16 second-leg
encounter against Real Madrid,
Guardiola revealed that the highly rat-
ed 19-year-old defender, who has played
13 games this season, wants to return to
his boyhood club, for whom he played
before joining City three years ago.
The Times understands that García
only made his employers aware that he
wanted to leave in the past 48 hours.
Paul Hirst
García wants shock return to Barcelona
City have made it clear that they will
only sell García for £30 million,
although they would accept £10 million
of that fee in add-ons.
“He told us that he doesn’t want to
extend his contract,” Pep Guardiola,
the City manager, said. “I imagine he
wants to play in another place.”
Sources stressed that García’s rela-
tionship with Guardiola is still strong,
but it remains to be seen whether the
City manager replaces the teenager,
who has started six of City’s past eight
games, with either Fernandinho,
Nicolás Otamendi or John Stones
tonight. City are 2-1 up from the first leg.
It is a significant blow to Guardiola,
who is a huge admirer of the teenager.García’s motives for wanting to return
to Barcelona are clear. He has been a
Barcelona fan all his life, and believes
that he has more chance of playing
regularly there. City want to sign
Kalidou Koulibaly from Napoli to play
alongside Aymeric Laporte in central
defence and have already bought
Nathan Aké from Bournemouth.
Guardiola is without Sergio Agüero
because of a knee injury but believes
that his star striker could play in the
quarter-finals if his team progress.
“He’s still in Barcelona [undergoing
treatment],” Guardiola said of the
32-year-old forward. “He’s getting
better. Hopefully he can come back and
start training but I don’t know.”City’s time to show they
Paul Hirst
Route to the final
Aug 12 Aug 13 Aug 14 Aug 15Final
Aug 23, Estádio da LuzEstádio da Luz Estádio José AlvaladeEstádio daá Luz
Atalanta v
PSGEstádio José
Alvalade
RB Leipzig v
Atletico
MadridEstádio da Luz
Napoli/Barcelona v
Chelsea/
Bayern
MunichEstádio
José Alvalade
Real Madrid/
Man City v
Lyons/JuventusQuarter-finals (all matches to be played in Lisbon)Semi-final, Aug 18 Semi-final, Aug 19vpMost attempts following set
piecesReal Madrid in La Liga, 2019-20
S RamosCasemiroK BenzemaR VaraneD Carvajal15139718Real Madrid’s excellent
defensive record, key to
making them La Liga
champions, stems from
the positional discipline,
anticipation and just-the-
right-side-of-the-law
tackles of Casemiro.
But the Brazilian is no
simple spoiler.
His quick feet, peripheral
vision and strength in the
opposition penalty box are
assets that Zinedine
Zidane increasingly
encourages him to use
deep in the opposition half.
Only two Real players,
Karim Benzema and Sergio
Ramos, scored more goals
than Casemiro’s four in the
league. In Ramos’s
absence through
suspension, he will be a
principal target for
attacking set pieces.ways Real have
improved since
3 Bernabéu loss
- Casemiro:
more than an
anchorman
wing set
9 - 20151318o:
an
n