Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City welcome defending champions Real Madrid to the Etihad for the second leg of their highly anticipated UEFA Champions League fixture.
The scoreline evenly poised at 1-1 in the second 90 minutes of the clash between the two giants as the Premiership side will be expected to go all the way to get their hands on the trophy that remains elusive. League Champion.
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But they will be well aware of the quality and potential of record 14-time winners Real Madrid and their tendency to take games away from the opposition in the blink of an eye, or in the context of manager Carlo Ancelotti’s modus operandi, an eyebrow in the rise Did.
Both teams have elite coaches who have tasted success at continental level more than once, and in Ancelotti’s case, with more than just one club.
And the fact that Guardiola hasn’t managed to win the CL outside his stint at his beloved Barcelona is a thorny thorn in the Catalan talent’s rosy bed. The man who led the Blaugrana to two Champions League titles could not repeat his feat in Bavaria as he failed to lift the coveted trophy with Bayern Munich during his time in Germany.
He came close to the title at Manchester City a few years back, only for Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea to snatch the 52-year-old’s dream.
Although some could argue that the loss to Chelsea in the final was due to the Spaniard’s over-complexity on the occasion, opting to bench both his holding midfielders Fernandinho and Rodrigo – something he did in over 40 fixtures did not do. season, others prefer to see it as a stepping stone. A means to an end, wherein the mastermind has managed to turn the game into an art form.
And former Liverpool player Don Hutchinson is one of the minds who share the view that Guardiola will finally get his due this year and pointed to the Spanish tactician’s immense adaptability.
“I think he’s a very adaptable coach. I don’t think Pep Guardiola has just one system and one type of game,” Hutchinson began.
“I think you can see the tiki-taka style of Barcelona and he did more or less the same thing at Bayern Munich.”
“But I think when he came to the Premier League, he adapted to what he thought could win the Premier League. He used Sergio Aguero as a false 9, and it definitely worked, But I think this season he’s evolved and he’s almost gone full circle in that they have a big man in Erling Haaland, we saw that against Arsenal where their gameplan was to bypass the midfield and never really -Never play in the middle, and he went long for Haaland,” said the former Liverpool midfielder.
“Guardiola is a very intelligent coach. He is the grandmaster in the Premier League. He is following his 12th title in 15 years and I think when he retires, many years to come, he will go down as the greatest of all time.
“He might need a few Champions Leagues with Manchester City to confirm that, but I think he is one in the order of Arrigo Saki, Johan Cruyff and Sir Alex Ferguson, who has a lot to say about how his football is played.” Made a real impact. And Guardiola keeps rotating the goalposts with his style every two or three seasons,” the 52-year-old praised the Santpador-born genius.
England owned the Middle East
Foreign ownership of valuable Premier League assets has become a point of debate among a wide diaspora of viewers of perhaps the most entertaining league in the world, and despite repeated claims of sportswashing running rampant, a substantial amount of monetary funding flows into the Premier League. Part flows in the form of foreign exchange.
Abu Dhabi struck gold when they conceived the Manchester City group we’ve become familiar with in modern times, and their neighbors Qatar also seek English glory, as does Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani’s ambitious quest to gain control of England. certified by the bid. The most successful club outfit on the other side of Manchester.
And if Abu Dhabi-owned Manchester City fulfills its dream of winning the most prestigious club competition in the world, the Qatari could still choose to remain – the UEFA Champions League arises. And perhaps, the UCL trophy going to the oil-rich United Arab Emirates may not please the Qatari emigres, which could prove to be the impetus for a proliferation of Middle-Eastern ownership on English shores.
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“I don’t think it will happen simply because Manchester City won the Champions League. I think more investors come in because they know and they think the Premier League is the most attractive and the best league in the world,” he said in Gateshead. Born Hutchinson said.
“It is the most high-profile league, the most talked about league. You can debate whether you think La Liga or Serie A or Premier League football is the best league, but I think Premier League is the most entertaining and where investors want to be because the product is great.
“I don’t think it will affect if Manchester City win the Champions League,” he concluded.
Watch UEFA Champions League 2022-23 Semi-Final live coverage on Sony Sports Ten 2, Sony Sports Ten 3 (Hindi) and Sony Sports Ten 4 (Tamil and Telugu) channels on 17 and 18 May 2023 at 12.30 PM IST