‘For Real Madrid… this is their reason for being. For Manchester City… this is where they want to be’. There’s a tendency to sometimes see commentating language and lingo as pretentiously poetic, overtly over-flogged, and intent on being a storyteller than letting the story play out. But Peter Drury was spot on when he used those words as Real Madrid and Manchester City met in the Champions League semi-final last season.
Real Madrid are the ultimate showpiece club. Box Office. Glitzy. Glamourous. Not so much the team for the big occasions as they’re the side that command them. And that showpiece tag is one of the aspirations of Man City, ever since the Abu Dhabi takeover of ’08. This is the pinnacle they crave. The ability to be looked with, if not love, reverence, and reputation. This latest semi-final meeting to come will be the fourth season they’ve met in this competition since 2012, and in that time, City have shown some form of historical materialist development, through their meetings with Los Blancos:
2012/13 (Group Stage)
Manchester City’s second-ever UEFA Champions League season started with a trip to the Bernabeu, in what was deemed the ‘Group of Champions in 2012/13. City were champions of England, but their inexperience and lack of reputation on continental soil was obvious. Hence, despite being between the champions of England and the champions of Spain, the first game was one of giant vs underdog. And when City took the lead with Edin Dzeko in the second half, it felt like a monumental achievement. City have lost 3-2 despite going ahead twice, but it was a testament to where they were then, that taking Real Madrid to the wire was a notable event on its own.
The second leg was a damp 1-1 draw at the Etihad, which confirmed City’s elimination from the competition. While Real Madrid would go on to make at least the semi-final for the third of what would be eight successive years, City were on for two successive group stage exits in a row.
2015/16 (Semi-final)
City bucked that group-stage failure trend in 2013/14 but had to make do with two Last 16 eliminations on the bounce, both at the hands of Barcelona. But they looked to have come of age in the 2015/16 season. They won their group for the first time, saw off Dynamo Kiev in the second round, then deservedly beat Paris St. Germain in the Last 8. Then, in their first ever semi-final, came Real once more.
The tie in its own was far from glamourous, a goalless first leg in Manchester was followed by a 1-0 win for Real in the Spanish capital, and even that was courtesy of an own goal. Getting to the semis was a massive achievement for City, but the performance in the tie showed a certain acceptance by the Mancunians with reaching this far, epitomising the gap they still had to make up with Los Blancos.
2019/20 (First Knockout Round)
That semi-final loss in 2016 was Manuel Pellegrini’s last European game as Man City manager, as he was replaced by Pep Guardiola. The scourge of Real during his time at Barcelona, Pep had reached the semi-final in all his seven of his seasons as manager, and was expected, nay demanded, to take City to the promised land. Yet, when he met Real for the first time as City manager, the team hadn’t reached the semi-final since that 2016 period, with two quarter-final exits following a Last 16 loss.
But City’s reputation had started to grow, they’d won two league titles in a row, with a combined 198 points from both seasons. And in this Last 16 tie they displayed their superiority on the pitch, dispatching Real home and away, and convincingly too. Were City finally there? Another quarter-final collapse, this time to Lyon, wasn’t the answer to the question that they sought.
2021/22 (Semi-final)
Two years later, Man City were on a different level. There was neither the awestruck feature, nor was the self-destruct button for Pep’s team, it seemed. When they faced Real in the semis in 2022, they’d displayed both the silkiness to blow teams away, and the sturdiness to resist opponents. And they had their boot on the throats of Real in the opening exchanges of this first leg, two goals up inside the first 20 minutes, and should have scored more. But with Karim Benzema, Los Blancos have one of the deadliest strikers in Europe, and he kickstarted Real’s momentum with a goal from nothing. City would remain dominant but had to make do with a 4-3 first leg win. ‘We left them alive’, said Guardiola, whose emotional outburst when Riyad Mahrez missed a chance when they were 2-0 up underscored a manager who knew what’s what when you don’t finish off Real in this competition.
But when Mahrez took a chance in the second leg, and put City 5-3 up on aggregate with less than 20 minutes to go, that looked to be that. Except, with the Spanish giants, it never is. As we crossed into stoppage time, Real were 5-3 down. Three minutes later, it was 5-5. In a season where they had come from the dead against PSG and Chelsea, Carlo Ancelotti’s side had done the impossible again, and finished City off in extra-time. This time, there was barely a post-mortem to do on City. Pep had gotten everything right, no over-thinking, no fidgeting, no lagging behind. They had been ahead since the 50th second of the first leg, till the 93rd minute of the second; meaning in a tie that’s meant to conventionally last 180 minutes, City led Real for 180 minutes. Still, they couldn’t beat the king.
They’d had the skill, the ferocity, and the dominance, but what they lacked was the ruthlessness. Perhaps, with a 51-goal striker in their ranks, that’s changed.
The king awaits once more.
Comments