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The serial Champions League-winning manager sat in the media theatre at the Etihad Stadium and saluted his defence.
“I didn’t think the team were able to make such a sacrifice as they did this evening,” he said.
It wasn’t Pep Guardiola, though he fielded five men who were bought as centre-backs, who cost a combined £240m, four of whom began as the back four in a Champions League final when their side kept a clean sheet.
Rather, it was Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian’s reputation is not as a defensive strategist, but then Ancelotti is football’s supreme anti-philosopher, with his amiable brand of winning, a chameleon-like ability to adapt to the players at his disposal.
Who, as Real Madrid beat Manchester City 3-2, did not tend to be centre-backs or right-backs.
“Two of the four defenders were midfielders,” explained Jude Bellingham. Another was Raul Asensio, a 21-year-old in his 22nd game for Real. If there are another 222, this still seems destined to remain a memorable one.
So, too, for City. But for different reasons. It was the script of their season, shown to a wider audience. There is a broader narrative: that many do not realise how vulnerable this City are until they witness it. Even on an evening when, in terms of ambition and attacking threat, they delivered one of the best performances of their campaign, there came an end to sum it up.
“When you’re winning 2-1 to give it away like that is frustrating and hard to take,” said Nathan Ake. “Especially because it’s happened a few times now this season and we haven’t learned from it yet.” Those sentiments were shared. “You cannot let it go the way we did,” said Ruben Dias. John Stones was blunter: “It’s a feeling of anger and frustration. We need to see games out better.”
Guardiola found himself listing the games that had got away from City, the times leads had been lost: Feyenoord, Sporting CP, Brentford, Manchester United. Goals tend to come in bursts. Real scored twice in seven minutes, just as Arsenal had nine days earlier. Paris Saint-Germain got two in five, Brentford two in nine, United two in three, Feyenoord three in 15, Tottenham two in eight, Brighton two in five, Sporting three in 11. The Clasico, as Ancelotti had called it, was another collapsico for City.
Late goals are a theme. In the Premier League, only three teams have conceded more goals in the final 15 minutes than City’s 11. In the Champions League, no one has let in more than their seven in that time frame. Bellingham’s 92nd-minute winner at the Etihad means they have been breached 17 times in the competition this season, more than any other Guardiola side has conceded in a campaign. When City won the Champions League in 2022-23, they played seven knockout games and let in three goals. Now they have played one and let in three.
The team defined by control have become careless. They have lost four leads: to Sporting, Feyenoord, PSG and now Real. Those comebacks and late goals can be seen as a failure of nerve, of game-management, an inability to see the job through. There is a truth to that, but it is only part of the truth.
It is also a failure of legs, of strength in depth. As City have got older and tired, opponents have learnt that if they keep running at them, they will get their rewards. Real did, just as PSG did. It is unfair to simply blame the battalion of centre-backs. Ake, in his first appearance for four weeks, made a goal-saving block before he went off on the hour. Stones, who had been majestic at times in midfield, had to move back to take over from the Dutchman.
Manuel Akanji only lasted 45 minutes and while he had not muted Vinicius Jr, he at least proved a worthy opponent for the Brazilian. In his absence, the Ballon d’Or runner-up illustrated that City have huge problems at right-back after Kyle Walker went into first decline and then exile. Matheus Nunes was tormented by Bradley Barcola in Paris. Rico Lewis fared no better against Vinicius Jr in Manchester.
Lewis, sadly, looks unable to cope defensively at this level. In his last 99 minutes of Champions League football, City have conceded seven goals and scored one. For Ilkay Gundogan, another who is too immobile to compete, the aggregate score stands at 5-0 in his last 71 minutes of European football. Mateo Kovacic at least drove the comeback against Club Brugge but when he came on against Real, he was culpable in part for their second and third goals. Lewis, Gundogan and Kovacic were all on the pitch for the finale against Real. Damningly, the midfield looked less secure with a specialist there, in Kovacic, than the out-of-position Stones.
All of which underlines that everything, sooner or later, comes back to the void Rodri left. Without the defensive midfielder, do City have a defence?
They may fear not. The day before the game, Guardiola had said it would be “impossible” to stop Real’s front four. Two years ago, though, City eliminated Real, conceding one goal in 180 minutes, limiting them to an expected goals total of 1.11 over two legs. On Tuesday, Real had 20 shots and an xG of 3.42. Guardiola said his side’s best player was their goalkeeper, Ederson. Three weeks earlier, PSG had 26 shots. And for City, with no guarantee Akanji will be fit, the risk is Real have still more in the Bernabeu next week.
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