Manchester (United Kingdom) (AFP)
After 10 years of waiting for Pep Guardiola and thirteen for the owners of City, the final of the Champions League is finally offered to them.
A golden opportunity, for which the Citizens have shown that they are armed.
When he bought the club in 2008, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nayan dreamed of one day seeing his team dominate Europe in football.
Double European champion on the Barcelona bench in 2009 and 2011 but then absent from the C1 final for ten years, until this season, Guardiola wanted to prove that he could also bring to the consecration a team other than the one whose he shared DNA.
"People think it's easy to get to the Champions League final. But getting to the final now validates what we have done for the past four or five years," said the Catalan, who exorcised his past failures with Bayern Munich then City.
There is still a step to be taken, the highest undoubtedly, the most perilous certainly, since it is a cleaver match: it passes or it breaks.
Of course, the opponent in front will be a mountain, Real or Chelsea, both of whom have already lifted the "Big Ears Cup", even if it is 13 times for the first and only once for the second.
- Chelsea, the scarecrow?
-
His Barcelona tropism and his excellent managerial record against Real - 11 wins and 4 draws in 19 matches - could encourage "Pep" to have a slight preference for Madrid.
Last year, City had also taken out the Spaniards in the round of 16 by winning twice 2-1, becoming the first team to eliminate coach Zinédine Zidane in Europe.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have a real scare for City.
The victory at Stamford Bridge (3-1) in the league does not really count, since Frank Lampard was in charge and since then, the arrival of Thomas Tuchel has transfigured the team.
And in their only clash, the German took the best (1-0) in the semi-final of the FA Cup.
Ironically, the two teams meet on Saturday in the league, with the challenge for City to validate their title, while the Blues are still chasing a place in the Champions League for next season, which would offer them either a place in the top 4 in the Premier League ... a victory in C1.
Chelsea is in any case one of the rare teams to be able to compete with City as well on confidence - 15 wins, 6 draws and 2 defeats under Tuchel -, as of tactical flexibility or a decisive factor at this period of the season: physical freshness.
- "It's not all about money" -
Whatever happens, Guardiola will have three weeks to take it all into account before the May 29 final and if this admirable European campaign has taught him - or confirmed - anything, it is that salvation will come from his own strength.
On the European and English scene, it was above all the defense that carried the Citizens.
Unbeaten in this C1 - 11 wins to 1 draw - they took only 4 goals and scored with clock regularity two goals for their opponents in each match since the start of the final phase.
Tuesday night, it was a double from Riyad Mahrez, already a scorer in the first leg, on blocks after spending a good part of the match, especially in the first period, to do the round back in an unusually low position.
Guardiola assured that it was not really a tactical plan, but that the circumstances of the match had dictated this attitude to them.
Regardless, his team proved a new facet of his talent and no longer suffered a Parisian strike after the 28th minute of the first period ... of the first leg!
Suffice to say that it will be necessary to be awfully strong to prevent a coronation of City, which could seem to some inevitable, given the sums committed since 2008.
"It's not all about the money. If you think about it, you're wrong," Guardiola told them Tuesday night.
© 2021 AFP