Manchester City have grown accustomed to the heartache of the Champions League, but their latest downfall against Real Madrid turns out to be the most painful defeat of all.
Four times Pep Guardiola’s men took a two-goal advantage in a classic semi-final tie, they eventually lost 6–5 on aggregate.
Thirteen-time champions Madrid somehow found a way to win as City, having lost last year’s final, melted into the white-hot atmosphere of the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday.
For 89 minutes, the English champion showed more maturity than a decade of experience in the competition, but in 90 seconds his best plans were destroyed.
Riyad Mahrez’s brilliant strike 17 minutes ahead of time put the visitors 1-0 on the night and 5-3 on aggregate, apparently ending the contest.
Madrid had not fired a single shot until Rodrigo threw Karim Benzema’s cross into the house when it came time for stoppage.
Suddenly, the Bernabeu believed and one of the world’s most expensive assembled squads yet succumbed to Real Rope-a-Dope, as Paris Saint-Germain and Chelsea had done in the previous two rounds.
Rodrigo headed again after less than a minute out of six and could have taken a hat-trick before extra time began.
In the end, appropriately, it was Benzema who delivered the final blow from the penalty spot and secured an unexpected victory in a tie that Madrid were left behind by 178 minutes.
It was a case of history repeating itself – Madrid failed to negotiate by a good margin what would define the later stages of the Champions League, both in terms of the fightback and Guardiola’s team.
– near misses –
It is now 11 years since he won the second of his two European Cups as coach at Barcelona.
In the 10 seasons he has been in charge of Barca, Bayern Munich and City, he has lost one final – a 1–0 loss to Chelsea last year, five semi-finals and three quarter-finals.
The 51-year-old said, “I’ve always had such a tough defeat in the Champions League. It’s tough for us, we can’t deny it, we were so close to the Champions League final.”
City, who have never been crowned European champions, will have another go next season, possibly armed with additional artillery from Erling Haaland, with reports the Norwegians will move from Borussia Dortmund to the Etihad.
Before that, Guardiola would have to wake up a bunch of mentally and physically exhausted players to avoid ending the season without a trophy for the first time since the 2016/17 campaign.
City have a one-point lead over Liverpool – who beat Villarreal to reach the Champions League final – with four games to go to top the Premier League.
“We need time now,” admitted Guardiola, whose side host Newcastle on Sunday, a day after Liverpool play Tottenham. “A day or two but we’ll get up, we have to do it.
“The players gave everything. We were so close but in the end we just couldn’t do it.”
A much-anticipated clash between England’s top two teams will no longer take place in Paris on 28 May, with Liverpool instead facing Madrid in the European Cup final for the third time.
But it is still up to City to deny the Reds a historic quadruple.
Win his last four games and Guardiola will claim his 10th league title in 13 seasons at Barca, Bayern and City.
That record is what makes the Catalan coach one of the most prestigious of all time.
But the trophy that brought him and City together to win is out of reach.
Despite the large sums of money invested by its Abu Dhabi-based owners, the club cannot buy the belief that decades of Champions League success has brought both Madrid and Liverpool.
Real go to European Cup No. 14 in Paris, while Liverpool will join AC Milan as the second most successful club in the competition’s history on seven titles with a win at the Stade de France.
The city would be happy with just one.
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