Manchester City will face Real Madrid in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals. Photo: Getty Images/Visionhaus
At the top of the Premier League, with another FA Cup final within reach and a game with Real Madrid standing between them and a place in a fourth successive Champions League semi-final, Manchester City are in familiar territory , in pursuit of the triple ball.
Like his players, Pep Guardiola tends to really come alive at this point in the season, and there was a twinkle in the City manager's eyes and excitement and energy in his voice as he prepared to welcome the La Liga leaders to the Etihad Stadium. 12 months. after Carlo Ancelotti's side were on the wrong end of that incredible 4-0 rout.
Of course, in performance terms, it remains the high point of Guardiola's nearly eight-year reign in east Manchester — or that , in what Bernardo Silva described as the players' version of an «apology» to fans for the dramatic collapse at the end of the previous season's semi-final at Manchester United Stadium. Bernabeu.
An exhibition game at least 80 percent good on Wednesday night would probably be enough to see off Real, even this younger, hungrier, sharper Jude Bellingham-enhanced version that highlighted its threat with a wild three-point play last week . 3 draws of the first matches in the Spanish capital.
But if Guardiola had been told four or five months ago that his Lucky Flowers side would inflict a similarly heavy defeat on the 14-time European champions en route to a historic treble, he might have laughed. There were all kinds of rifts, so big that the coach publicly admitted that he “didn’t recognize” his side.
In many ways, this season's story was not much different. Bernardo may have spoken boldly on Tuesday about the prospect of creating an unprecedented and breathtaking history for City. But he also admitted that the «double treble» idea was not high on anyone's mind in late November and early December, when they failed to win four matches in a row, picking up just three points, and were 2-under. RB Leipzig scored 0 in 33 minutes in the penultimate match of the group stage of the Champions League.
“It’s not easy for a team that wins the treble to come back with a bit of a hangover and feel hungry every three days,” he explained. “But there was a combination of factors at play. Our captain Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez left, so the new players had to adapt, and adapting is not easy. This is a time when we had a lot of injured players, especially defenders. Rodri was suspended [for several games] and no one can deny that he is an important player for us, and Kevin De Bruyne suffered a long-term injury. Collectively, sometimes the team is not perfect.”
The result, Bernardo said, was an unstable team. “There were times when the team wasn't playing very well, we weren't in control of the game,” he said. “The games were transitional and we don’t like to play, we like to control the tempo. We missed a lot of chances and scored late, which is not normal for us. But with a little bit of input from every single player we've managed to improve, become more solid and we haven't lost a game since December so we're delighted to have reached this part of the season with a chance to still challenge for the top three. important competitions.”
That they have remained undefeated since the captain's group called a team meeting in an attempt to get the season back on track speaks both to their insatiable will to win and to the team's remarkable, relentless performance. “Our feeling within the team and what we agreed [as players] and really wanted to do was fight as hard as we could to give ourselves a chance at the end of the season to still be fighting for every competition,” Bernardo said.
“Not to be 20 points ahead of Arsenal and Liverpool, but to be close to them and fight. We are very pleased that we were able to achieve this, despite all the ups and downs, and it was true.»
The defeats of Liverpool and Arsenal changed the course of City in the title race at the weekend, but Bernardo , who scored twice in that thrilling 4-0 masterclass against Real Madrid last season and again at the Bernabeu last Tuesday, is not expecting any favors from Ancelotti's side.
“ Madrid are stronger this season, that’s the feeling I have when we play them. at the Bernabeu and they will certainly want to take revenge for that game, so it will be difficult,” he said.
“We have the utmost respect for Real Madrid for everything they achieved in this match » competition and their history, and we know that they are a very dangerous team because they play very differently from us.
“Sometimes you feel like you're in control and then they fall behind and score goals , so it is very difficult to control Real. You feel like you have the game under control, but you never do.”
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