REAL MADRID’S HERITAGE LEAVES A HAUNTED CITY STILL TRYING TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN
Thursday 5th May by Tom Ball
The Champions League ain't bad, ay?
We are running out of superlatives for Pep Guardiola - the football he crafts is incredible, and his genius coached another tie winning performance last night. The problem is, the team he was coaching was Manchester City, and the team they were facing was Real Madrid.
In a season where UEFA are beginning to push Champions League qualification through European heritage, Real Madrid's heritage gave them everything they needed on Wednesday night.
Real Madrid have spent the entire knockout stages being second best; they even lost 2-0 at home to Moldovan Champions FC Sheriff Tiraspol in the group stages. Yet, 11 knockout stage goals for Karim Benzema have helped them to their 5th final in 8 years, and it's Liverpool who stand in their way of winning all of them.
Manchester City played Real Madrid off the park in the first leg at the Etihad; Madrid were lucky to come away just one goal down, yet, this is something they have made a habit out of.
Lionel Messi's missed penalty in the round of 16 and Eduoard Mendy's howler in the Quarter Finals proved invaluable in ties they ended up winning by 1 goal. While those ties saw Los Blancos cutting it close, they hadn't cut it as close as Wednesday night.
Real Madrid needed two goals with 1 minute left plus stoppage time, in steps Rodrygo; the Brazilian substitute brought on for a tired Luka Modric essentially robbing Manchester City of their all but finalised trip to Paris.
The game mirrored that of Real Madrid's tie against PSG. The Parisians were by far the better side, as were City. They both seemed to control the game and led through their own brilliance. However, as Real Madrid got the first goal back, a goal that did not change the outcome of either tie as it stood, the belief of Manchester City seemed to completely disintegrate, as it did with PSG.
Two teams who most suitably represent the new money coming into the game of football. Whose entire purpose is slowly becoming to win the Champions League, just by token of their domestic dominance. Two teams who, all the while, just cannot seem to do it.
PSG's issues are systemic; reports suggest a complete rebuild is on the horizon. However, Manchester City have not stepped a foot wrong in their pursuit of greatness. PSG have never really been a good enough side to win the Champions League; Manchester City have been pretty much since they signed Pep Guardiola. Therefore, despite City's brilliance, they seem the furthest away of anyone - perhaps they're cursed?
The ongoing reference to Pep Guardiola having a curse put on him as a result of his treatment of Yaya Toure is becoming an ever more popular explanation for City’s failures - football explanations are becoming harder and harder to construct.
There is no doubt City have built a team capable of winning the competition. But no matter how deserving they are on a football level - the universe, football gods, or whoever has this power always seems to find a way to rip it away.
Without veering to more trivial explanations, various chances in both legs were spurned by City's attackers allowing Real Madrid the ability to get back in these games even with no time left to do so. However, for 89 minutes, the Citizens had done their job.
At the start of the second half, Real Madrid put together an incredibly well-drilled kick-off passage that created a golden opportunity for Vinicius seconds after the restart - this was another example, similar to the PSG game of them catching teams asleep, being opportunistic.
After scoring, they immediately took the game to a mentally weak City. While conceding the first would have been something a team could deal with, dealing with an immediate onslaught directly afterwards slowly drains one's confidence. Real Madrid, no matter their footballing weaknesses, are a side who can always smell blood and always believe in their clutch nature, and City seem quite the opposite in this competition.
Essentially seconds later, Real Madrid had forced extra time, with their first two shots on target of the entire game. There was now an inevitability in the air; if there was a team in the Semi-Finals who would squander an advantageous position, it was Manchester City. And if there was a team that was going to do it to them, it was Real Madrid. That stadium had seen too many nights like this, and Karim Benzema winning a penalty just two minutes into Extra-Time cemented another one of those nights.
As for Guardiola, there was not much he could have done. He reacted to real Madrid's attempt to get joy out of Vinicius Jr. in the first leg, a fit Kyle Walker brought in to defend his pace, much like Thomas Tuchel had done with Reece James at Bernabeu in the previous round. This worked. Kyle Walker was City's most important player; his forced departure due to injury inevitably left a chink in City's armour.
Jack Grealish missing two golden opportunities to put the tie to bed was an all too familiar tale for City from the first leg. Rodrygo's brace closely followed these chances, and the latter of his brace came from the 5'9 attacker winning a header 6 yards out of City's goal in stoppage time of a game City just needed to hang onto.
Last year, Chelsea's triumph in the competition saw them conceding just two goals during the knockout stages. City, the team who have only conceded 21 goals in the Premier League all season, have conceded six in two legs against Real Madrid. Guardiola's system worked defensively this season; he even played his first choice backline. Whether it's bad luck or lapses in concentration, that incredible defence decided to collapse.
Just days after Jurgen Klopp had committed himself to Liverpool for a further two years into 2026, Pep Guardiola has to wait yet another year for the prize that he is feeling the pressure to bring to the Etihad. It's pretty remarkable - he is in pole position to secure his fourth Premier League title in five years, to add to his four league cups and one FA cup he had won in that time, yet each year has seen his exit from the Champions League been labelled a failure.
However, this exit felt slightly different; many would point to his questionable team selection in last year's final, leading to a deserved defeat. This time, his tactics and set-up saw them be best in almost every area against Real Madrid - City spurned many chances to get more goals in the first leg and, in turn, the opportunity to put themselves out of reach of their opponents.
Most football fans are in dismay over the proposal to have two clubs qualify for Europe's most significant competition based on historical performance. A disgrace of a submission considering UEFA's attempt to paint themselves as heroes during the European Super League debacle attempted to remove the jeopardy for Europe's wealthiest clubs. Real Madrid are proving that while having legislation is full proof, that priceless European experience can see you overcome most odds.
It is crazy to think that after seeing all the incredible nights Real Madrid have been a part of in this competition over the last decade, President Florentino Perez is insisting a European Super League needs to happen. A whole year since its original collapse. However, his club's unrivalled pedigree in the tournament has got them to yet another final with the odds stacked against them. A pedigree that, despite their footballing excellence, Manchester City seem like they need right now. You can probably see what has made Perez think his team have a god-given right to be in this tournament every year - it's just that football doesn't and shouldn't work that way.