Vinícius Júnior stood with his arms outstretched and appeared to be asking his coach for instructions.
Carlo Ancelotti, hands on hips, didn’t know what to say.
There were only 23 minutes played and Real Madrid were overwhelmed and humiliated by Manchester City in the semi-finals of the Champions League – a competition the Spanish club has almost made its own.
And already Vinícius, one of the best players in the world, and Ancelotti, the most decorated European Cup coach, were helpless.
That’s how good City were on a night that saw Pep Guardiola and his players create a masterpiece they’d been working on for almost seven years.
“We feel unstoppable,” said City winger Jack Grealish after his side’s 4-0 win to secure a place in the Champions League final Inter Milan in Istanbul on June 10th.
Madrid would vouch for that.
City have taken football to new heights in recent months and their performance against Madrid was the highlight. Especially in the first half it was almost perfect.
Before half-time, Madrid had only 10 touches in the attacking third and just 28% possession. The shot count was 13-1. Without two close-range saves from Thibaut Courtois and a few misses, City could have been 4-0 up – or more.
Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, who works as an analyst for British broadcaster BT Sport, said he received a text message from City manager Pep Guardiola just hours before the game.
“Believe me, we will beat them,” said Guardiola, said Ferdinand. When he left the field after the game, Guardiola pointed to Ferdinand and yelled, “I told you, I told you.”
City didn’t just beat Madrid. It was absolute devastation, a relief from the pain of last season’s semi-finals when City conceded goals in the final seconds of the second leg at the Santiago Bernabéu, went into extra time and eventually lost.
It was certainly City’s best performance in seven seasons under Guardiola.
“The highest when you consider the opposition,” he said when asked to rank the performance.
It had come.
In their 23-game unbeaten run since losing 1-0 to Tottenham on February 5, City have struck Liverpool, arsenal, Bayern Munich and now Real Madrid by at least three goals. Add to that a 7-0 win over Leipzig and a 3-1 win at Arsenal – a result in February that turned the Premier League title race around – and City are just on a different level.
Guardiola even acknowledges that the treble – Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League – is possible. It’s right in front of you. Another win in every competition and City equals Manchester United’s success in 1999.
“We can do it,” said Guardiola.
Reaching this peak level inevitably raises the question of how City got here. It’s the result of 15 years of heavy spending on players, let alone coaches like Guardiola, and a ruthlessly executed broader strategy by the Abu Dhabi owner.
Some call it sports washing and shrug at City’s performances. The The club faces more than 100 charges by the Premier League for allegedly breaching financial rules in 2009-18 and not cooperating with an investigation since then, adding to the confusion and leading some football fans to question whether City and other state teams such as Paris Saint-Germain (Qatar) and Newcastle (Saudi Arabia) are changing football for the worse.
But while PSG continue to stumble despite their wealth – the French club are no closer to winning the Champions League – and Newcastle have yet to really flaunt their wealth since being taken over by Saudi Arabia in 2021, City have a well-executed one Strategy that has seen the team become the dominant force in England and now Europe too.
City’s players are likely to clinch their third consecutive Premier League title and seventh in 12 years this weekend Part 1 of the triple commandment. Then comes the FA Cup final against Manchester United on June 3, before the Champions League final the following weekend.
In its current form, there is no stopping it.
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