2023-06-11 06:00:01
Guardiola learned to win without de Bruyne.
Guardiola
Pep Guardiola won the Champions League for the first time Leo Messi, who, in order to see this event, had to move from Europe to another continent – to Miami for the first time in two decades of his professional career. Lionel himself managed to do this without a coach at Barça in 2015, and now he has equalized.
Guardiola brought the eared trophy to Manchester City for the first time – a club to which he seemed fatally not given, no matter who coached him. But with such consistency of wins in the best league on the planet – five Premier League titles in the last six, since the second season under Pepe – it might not happen sooner or later.
Kevin De Bruyne, Josep Guardiola and Ilkay Gundogan.
Photo Global Look Press
Guardiola repeated the achievement of Sir Alex, for the first time since the Manchester United legend (Ferguson succeeded in 1999) by winning the championship, the National Cup and the Champions League at the same time. And he did the same trick with Barcelona in the 2008/09 season.
Guardiola finally did not play the play “Woe from Wit”, did not invent something unprecedented and unimaginable – and won, despite the early injury of Kevin de Bruyne and tightly closed Erling Haaland.
Guardiola catches up with Champions League wins Zinedine Zidane (but he won all three times with one “Real”) and now concedes only Carlo Ancelotti. He took the main European club trophy twice with Milan and Real Madrid.
Guardiola passed football. Manchester City win the Champions League for the first time in history
Guardiola is able to teach even Manuel Akanji to make ingenious attacking moves on the field. The Swiss defender was never considered a top even in his direct line of work before moving to City, many laughed when Pep acquired him from Dortmund. What an attack! And now, at the decisive moment of the match, he received the ball from Phil Foden somewhere on the border of the upper third of the field, rushed forward, swung ostensibly for a strike, but instead gave between the two defenders an amazing, thin cutting pass to Bernardo Silva. And following seconds, Rodri’s goal will happen. Because the Catalan is able to teach not to be afraid to play football, even telegraph poles in Barcelona, Munich and Manchester!
Guardiola came up with big players Stones and Rodri, who scored the main goal of the club season today. And well, smartly scored, with his head held high! Two defenders were in the path of his strike, but the Spaniard “twisted” them with his strike. And Onana, it seemed, did not even see the moment of impact.
Guardiola is a consistent creator of great, exemplary football, even if yesterday’s performance by his team was not great. But he deserved this victory, as they say, in aggregate.
De Bruyne injured in the middle of the boredom of the first half
The final turned out to be not charming (especially in the first half, which would be better if it didn’t exist at all), but real. And Inter was not a supposed supporting actor who knows his place.
In the first 45 minutes, the teams created one chance for two and delivered one corner. The spectacle was at that time clearly below average. The heart from that football might not beat faster for a second.
Almost the only noteworthy event of the first half was the injury of Kevin de Bruyne, which immediately resurrected a similar drama with the same hero of a sad image in the 2021 final once morest Chelsea. Only then – still in the second half, while now even 36 minutes have not passed.
KDB hugged and consoled Haaland, patted on the head at the moment of leaving the field captain Gundogan… To be honest, such a turn of events was for me – but perhaps only for me? – shock. I thought that if the Norwegian car was somehow blocked, giving it all possible attention, then de Bruyne would decide the outcome of the game. And he passed to Holanna for the only chance before the break, having found a crack in the defense of Inter, just the Belgian gave it away. And then how it happened.
But following the first half, the tongue did not turn to criticize Inter. Simone Inzaghi generally imposed his football on City and prevented Guardiola’s team from playing their own at all – which is incredibly difficult (ask PSG and Real Madrid). When I asked myself the question of who deserved more victory in the match in the first half, I answered – Inter. Despite zero – then – moments.
Rodri has become as important to Guardiola as Messi. In the playoffs, he eclipsed Haaland and De Bruyne
Inter, taking into account an opponent of this caliber, was surprisingly solid, healthy and organized – and it was not regarding the “bus”, the Italians often met the “citizens” at someone else’s penalty area and did not let them calmly start attacks. It didn’t look like Inzaghi was playing his first final of this level in his life. And it was not clear how Man City might radically change the game without de Bruyne. I thought – well, maybe due to the quality of the bench towards the end of the game. But following all, the Nerazzurri remained outside the starting lineup Romelu Lukaku and recovered from injury in the return semi-final with Milan Henrikh Mkhitaryan…
I really wanted him to become the first Armenian to participate in the Champions League final. All this season, spent at the heart of the Milan club at the age of 34, Mkhitaryan deserved it – and throughout his career. It would be a real shame if an injury prevented him from doing so. But even though from the first minutes following several missed matches and the restoration of Inzaghi, Heinrich did not dare to release, he nevertheless appeared on the field – in the last minutes, when it was necessary to go for broke. Inter immediately played through him, switched to a short pass – and the team’s game acquired new colors.
But the ball did not go fatally into Ederson’s goal that evening. Everything might have been much more dramatic.
Manchester City defender John Stones and Inter striker Lautaro Martinez.
Photo Global Look Press
Lautaro and Lukaku recall the nightmares of the times of Qatar
Since the beginning of the second half, Inter has become different even without Mkhitaryan – much more courageous and brazen in attack. This coincided with Lukaku replacing Jacko. The Belgian, following an unsuccessful season (remember at least his failure at the World Cup in Qatar), gave out a shock May, scored six goals – and many expected that Inzaghi would prefer him on the edge. But no – probably both the game task and the memory of the actually winning goal in the semi-finals with Milan determined Simone’s decision in favor of Dzeko. But, judging by the way the coach hugged the player before going on as a substitute and how the striker himself reacted to this, Romelu did not hold a grudge.
After a couple of minutes, I gave the pass back Bernardo SilvaAkanji for some reason missed on Ederson, who, in turn, did not come out – and the ball ended up at Lautaro Martinez. Why did the Argentinean (another loser of the 2022 World Cup along with Lukaku) hit Ederson from a zero angle, and not give back to Marcelo Brozovic, who was running in the area of the penalty line? I have only one explanation – I probably heard and was upset how the commentator Roman Naguchev made a mistake a couple of times and called Martinez – Lisandro, which is the name of the Manchester United central defender. So Lautaro played in the scoring phase not as a forward, but as a defender.
In ten minutes, City will open the scoring, and soon Inter will have to score once more. After the mistake of the same Akanji, di Marco, who played brilliantly as a whole, hit his head twice in a row – first in an arc into the crossbar, and when finishing off in … Lukaku.
The Belgian is destined to miss the biggest moment of the match. On the 89th. After a diagonal Gozens from the near post moved the ball inside the goalkeeper’s with his head, and Lukaku hit point-blank from the ground. And he just hit Ederson – and if Romela had been hit a little to the side, the goalkeeper would not have had a chance.
And in the last attack, on the corner already in time that went beyond even five minutes of added time, the Brazilian goalkeeper of City once more had to drag. That is, the club from Manchester got five clear moments following the break! Whereas the “citizens” themselves, apart from Rodri’s goal, only remember Foden’s run and Onana’s save on it in the second half – which, however, did not require very much effort from the goalkeeper, the blow turned out to be so weak and predictable.
“Lukaku is the main anti-hero of the terrible ending.” What do the English and Italian media write regarding the Champions League final?
In my opinion, Inter deserved the right to at least overtime. The number of SUCH moments in the second half should have resulted in at least some kind of quality. But it was as if both Lautaro and Lukaku had their nightmares back from the Cathar days. Although since then, both one and the other have shown themselves very well at Inter at different periods.
The fierce resistance that the Milanese club offered to City was clearly evidenced by the reaction of the winners following the final whistle – literally shaking with sobs of happiness (and this happens!) Jack Grealish, from which all his glamor instantly flew off; cried the Stones and Haaland, who won the first Champions League in his career, but did not play an important role in the decisive match …
And they all won for Kevin de Bruyne. When the unfortunate Belgian, who had not played in two finals in aggregate and 90 minutes, hobbled to the bench with a knee injury, I recalled our recent conversation with Akron head coach Yevgeny Kaleshin. I asked him which of the world stars – but only one! He would work if given the opportunity. He called de Bruyne without a second’s hesitation, describing him as the most underestimated player in world football, who at the same time knows how to do absolutely everything.
Only now, as it turned out, he doesn’t know how not to get injured in the main finals …
Guardiola found a way to win without De Bruyne. His team on a particular day, I think, was not stronger than Inzaghi’s guys. But with a terrific season, Manchester City deserved the share of luck that allowed this decisive match not to go into extra time.
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