LISBON (Reuters) – With the millions who have invested in top productive players and with the top-notned coach of their generation in charge, Manchester City does much more than coming out of the Champions League in the eighth round.
But after his surprise 3–1 loss to Olympique Lyonnais on Saturday, that’s precisely what City has done in the last 3 years.
Guardiola brought the club, through its Abu Dhabi-based owner Sheikh Mansour, after his predecessor as coach, Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, took the club to the champions of the Champions League, while winning the Premier League title.
And while Guardiola has won two Premier League titles, damaged records and produced some of the best footballers the club’s enthusiasts have seen, good European fortune remains hard for his team to achieve.
Obviously, this irritates the Spaniard a lot, in fact he is almost obsessed with competition.
Throughout this season, Guardiola has referred to the Champions League, without scandal, when asked about the national campaign.
There is another visible behavior of Guardiola in the preparation of Champions League matches, he is more nervous, even at the organizational level where he tends to exaggerate the quality of modest opponents.
The assumption was that City, as a newcomer to the European elite, only needed to adapt to the other demands that the Champions League can impose on a team.
“One day we’re going to break that semi-final gap,” he said after Saturday’s defeat.
“The team of recent years deserves it. Maybe one day we’ll close that gap.”
But now Guardiola himself is asked questions and, strangely, a guy who is a tactical master, about the variety and formation of his team.
City looked like a mature European team by beating Real Madrid, 13 times champion, at home and away from home in the last round.
But Guardiola replaced the winning formula of this match, replacing offensive midfielder Phil Foden with a defender at 19-year-old Eric Garcia.
It was an unforeseen resolution. Clearly, Guardiola felt it was obligatory to neutralize an attack from Lyon that may take the form of a pitchforch, but it soon became clear that this resolution had left the initiative to the French at the center of the field and the City could not dominate in its usual style. Way.
When defence Fernandinho was delayed by winger Riyad Mahrez in the 56th minute, The City’s attack risk increased significantly and 3 minutes later tied.
Guardiola’s tactic does not make his team allow an undeniable over the most sensible ball to lead to Moussa Dembélé’s purpose of 2-1 bringing the score, and it has nothing to do with Raheem Sterling lacking an absolute goalkeeper from close range.
The third purpose came here with The City desperately proceeding with the game in search of a leveler, but there remains doubts as to whether Guardiola had just made the team’s task too complicated.
Former England winger Chris Waddle, who played at Olympique de Marseille in France and reached the European Cup final in 1991, had no doubt that Guardiola has allowed City to play normally.
“They didn’t bother them enough, they needed a bet from David Silva in the gaps. They wouldn’t have liked to play Phil Foden tonight,” he said.
“Pep Guardiola has to raise his hands tonight and say I’m wrong.”
Lyon coach Rudi Garcia added to the debate that his team had “won the tactical battle.”
But Guardiola rejected that notion.
“In this competition, tactics are not the ultimate,” Guardiola said at a press conference.
“They (the Lyon) are so fast and our central defenders so fast, so I didn’t have to leave them two against two.
“We worked on it for 3 days, we discussed it and looked at it, and when you play like we did in the last 20 minutes, it shows that the formula is the problem.”
But the fact is, a City team that beat Zinedine Zidane’s Real smart enough to beat Lyon and did not.
Discovering precisely why, will be anything Guardiola must think deeply for many months.
Reporting through Simon Evans; Editing through Daniel Wallis
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