6 2GS Saturday August 15 2020 | the times
Sport Champions League
It started with Ramires; with a little,
uncelebrated, normally innocuous
Brazilian chipping Victor Valdés on a
counterattack. This was in first-half
stoppage time in the second leg of
Barcelona’s 2011-12 semi-final with
Chelsea and the moment the
Champions League turned from being
Pep Guardiola’s playground to his
school of hard knocks.
That Barca-Chelsea tie pivoted on
Ramires’s goal and Chelsea prevailed,
despite Barca’s 72 per cent possession in
both legs, despite a John Terry sending
off, despite playing for 53 minutes –
against Lionel Messi with a centre-back
pairing of José Bosingwa and Branislav
Ivanovic.
It began for Guardiola – then Barce-
lona’s coach – a sequence of mishaps in
knockout ties that nobody could have
foreseen when he won the Champions
League twice (in 2009 and 2011 with
Barcelona) in his first three participa-
tions as a coach.
Going into Manchester City’s quar-
City’s ‘once in a lifetime’ chance to
ter-final against Lyons, who finished
seventh in this season’s curtailed
French championship, the opposition
appears almost less daunting than
Guardiola’s own ghosts.
Of course, he needs to work out ways
of curbing Lyons’ weapons, notably the
pacy and intelligent breakaways the
French side funnel through Houssem
Aouar and their captain, Memphis De-
pay. But as much as anything, Guardio-
la must guard against a tendency to-
wards self-inflicted damage in the
Champions League final stages. It has
gripped both him and — even before
his appointment in 2016 — his club.
After that 3-2 aggregate defeat by
Chelsea in the semi-finals eight years
ago, Guardiola’s next Champions
League campaign ended in a debacle at
the same stage when he was managing
Bayern Munich. Trailing 1-0 from a first
leg away from home against Real
Madrid he kept changing tactical plans
before plumping for an uber-offensive
4-2-4 formation in the return leg. It
ended in a humiliating 4-0 defeat. “The
biggest f***-up of my life as a coach,”
Guardiola was to confide.The next season, in another semi-fi-
nal, he tried a back three against Barce-
lona and their front line of Messi, Ney-
mar and Luis Suárez, and against Atleti-
co Madrid the year after, he
controversially left Thomas Müller out.
Two more disasters.
With City, there was the round-of-
exit to Monaco in 2016-17 featuring
chaotic defending — City became the
only team in Champions League his-
tory to lose a knockout tie after scoring
five goals in the first leg (which finished
5-3). Then there was the 2017-18 reverse
to Liverpool, when Guardiola’s ruses of
fielding Aymeric Laporte at left back
against Mo Salah, and dropping Rah-
eem Sterling to accommodate Ilkay
Gündogan as an attacking midfielder,
backfired in a 3-0 defeat at Anfield.
Last season came a quarter-final exit
against Tottenham Hotspur — when
Guardiola surprisingly left Kevin De
Bruyne out of the away leg and detailed
Fabian Delph to shackle Son Heung-
min.
City, having only reached one semi-
final (in 2015-16, with Manuel Pellegri-
ni in charge) despite the most expensiveprogramme of transfer investment in
football history, have a record of under-
performance independent of their
manager and while terrible luck has al-
so been a factor (see the role of VAR in
last year’s second leg against Spurs), the
sense is one of a brilliant team and
coach that should have done more.
The evidence from the 2019-20 com-
petition is that Guardiola and City mayat last be ready to change their histories.
In Lisbon, at his pre-match press con-
ference, Guardiola talked about a “once
in a lifetime moment” and there seemed
justification in his argument that his
side are ready to seize it.
If defensive problems have lain be-
hind so many of his exits, not just with
City but Bayern and Barcelona, then
the evidence is of a tightening up thisseason. In last year’s Champions
League, City made eight errors in ten
games leading to shots. This season, in
eight matches they have made just four.
Their progress past Real Madrid –
“the kings of the competition,” noted
Guardiola — involved performances in
both legs (each won 2-1 by City) that
were smart and mature. In Madrid,
Guardiola was tactically circumspect:
City’s 51 per cent possession was the
least by any team he has managed in a
European knockout stage game.
All week, City players have been
stressing that nothing should be taken
for granted about this quarter-final –
despite some bookmakers placing them
as 1-14 favourites – and Guardiola be-
lieves their mindset is the correct one to
avoid slip-ups this time. “I don’t expect
that it will be one-sided for 90 minutes.
There will be moments when we have
to suffer. There will be moments we will
control and there will be moments
when we have to defend,” he said.
“We have to be strong in our minds
and try to do our plan. These games are
about the mentality and the spirit and I
think the players are ready to do it.”Jonathan Northcroft
Full backs are key
City lost and drew with Lyons two
years ago and Pep Guardiola will
want to see improvements at full
back. Fabian Delph was at left back
in the 2-1 defeat, with Kyle Walker at
right back. They both had stinkers.
The opening goal came via a cross
from the right, with Walker caught
out, Delph made a hash of the
clearance and Maxwel Cornet
scored. In the second game
Oleksandr Zinchenko came in for
Delph and Cornet cut inside him for
the first of two goals in a 2-2 draw.
For this game, I would select
Benjamin Mendy rather than João
Cancelo, as he is both physical and
quick. It is imperative that City do
not make mistakes in the full-back
positions because Memphis Depay
and Cornet, who played as a
wing back against Juventus in the
last round, can hurt them.
There are times when City look as
if they could make a defensive
mistake at any moment. Errors at
this stage will be punished.TONY CASCARINO’S
BIG MATCH GUIDE
Manchester City are favourites to reach the Champions League semi-finals but Lyons
were the last team to beat them in a European match at the Etihad, winning 2-1 in
September 2018. Here are three areas where Pep Guardiola’s side can avoid an upset.Games Errors leading to shots2016-2017-2018-2019-8
810
610
88
4Cutting out mistakesManchester City have made fewer
errors leading to shots this season
than in any Champions League
campaign under Pep GuardiolaGuardiola’s City record in
the Champions LeagueWith De Bruyne startingWithout De Bruyne startingWon
16Won
6Lost
4Lost
4Drawn
3Drawn
3Win%
69.Win%
46.Route to the final
Estádio
José
Alvalade
Kick-off 8pmTV BT Sport 1
Radio
talkSPORTReferee
D Makkelie
(Netherlands)Lyons (probable; 5-3-2)Man City (probable; 4-3-3)LopesEdersonDubois Marcelo Cornet
Denayer MarçalMendyLaporteFernandinhoWalkerGundogan Rodri De BruyneSterling Jesus SilvaGuimaraes Aouar CaqueretDepay (cap)DembeleAtalanta 1
PSG 2RB
Leipzig 2
Atletico
Madrid 1Quarter-finals (all matches to be played in Lisbon)Final, Aug 23
Estádio da LuzPSG v RB Leipzig Bayern Munich v?Semi-final,
Aug 18TonightEstádio José AlvaladeBarcelona 2
Bayern
Munich 8Estádio
José
Alvalade
Man City
v LyonsSemi-final,
Aug 19
Estádio da LuzI want to see my team
do everything from in
their soul — Guardiola