Guardiola continues to reinvent football: exhibition and humiliation of Real Madrid that bring City closer to their first ‘Orejona’

It is the game that Pep Guardiola was missing to confirm that his ‘inventions’ are ideas that look crazy on paper but on the field are signs that there are still things to discover in football. If he patented Messi as a false ‘9 ′, I believe Jones Stones, a central defender who plays as a midfielder who also steps on the opposite area.

Thus, with Guardiola’s ideas and what players like Jones Stones, Rodrigo and Gundogan reflect in midfield and what Kevin de Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland define in attack, Manchester City thrashed Real 4-0 Madrid and will play the Champions League final where they will seek to raise the long-awaited ‘Orejona’ for the first time.

It is that City made the Real Madrid shield only a decorum on the black shirt of the Spaniards. An English team that by the time they scored the first goal at minute 23 had made 134 passes against only 27 for Real. Thus he suffocated the last champion to tell him that his mystique this time would have no weight at the Etihad Stadium.

EXHIBITION IN THE MIDFIELD

It was an exhibition by Manchester City against a Real Madrid team that seemed to be holding out at the hands of a spectacular Thibaut Courtois, but there was little that could be done in the face of that celestial tide that was invading their entire field. Silva at 23 -after a great pass from Kevin de Bruyne-, and Bernardo Silva again at 37 with a header after a rebound. That’s how they went into the break, with a 2-0 advantage, but above all with the feeling that Real could do little in the face of their superiority despite a shot from Kroos to the crossbar and then, in the second half, a shot from Valverde that Ederson saved.

That Rodri and Stones have connected in 19 passes dictates who dominated the game, compared to the most productive combination of Real Madrid, with only 9 between Modric and Camavinga, a large part of them in their field. And so they overwhelmed Real, with a total of 16 shots, eight of them on target, in which Courtois had to save 4 to avoid further tragedy, two of them against Erling Haaland.

Militao’s own goal and Julián Álvarez’s goal sealed everything. The Argentine attacker entered through Haaland and in the first play he had he closed the scoring, after a great pass from Foden. The ‘Spider’ seeks to win the Champions League, to complete his collection of Libertadores, Copa América and the World Cup.

PEP’S LOAD

And it will be the second final in history for Manchester City, both with Guardiola in charge. He suffered it in 2021 when, despite being a favourite, he lost to Chelsea (1-0) in Portugal, and he is going for his revenge on June 10 in Istanbul when he faces Inter, a table that in the previous one did not seems to have chances, but in a final to a single game, anything can happen.

And Guardiola celebrates again against Real Madrid in the Champions League. It is the third time that he has eliminated him (one with Barza in 2011 and two with City, the previous one in 2020) after suffering being left out last year.

It will be the fourth final for Guardiola, just one less than Ancelotti, the top finalist. Once again, Manchester City is going for that ‘Orejona’ that justifies the investment that it makes year after year. The Champions League that seems to deny Pep outside of Barcelona but this time he has it at hand. If it continues like this, there is no one to dispute it.

And the sum does not stop there. He is the leader of the Premier League and has the dispute of the FA Cup final against Manchester United. He is going for the treble in the season.

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