Only one French club has been European champions but after Lyon beat Juventus no country has more teams in the last eightIf Euro 2020 had not been postponed, then as world champions France would have fancied their chances of embellishing the country’s roll of honour this summer. But when it transpired that the only competitions to take place would be the eight-team Champions League and Europa League mini-tournaments that kick-off next week, hopes of French glory faded.Only once has a French club lifted one of Europe’s top two competitions and that victory was tainted, as Marseille’s 1993 Champions League triumph came in the year in which they were stripped of their domestic title for match-fixing. This year, by contrast, events...
City were far superior but at 1-1 looked vulnerable. Their failure to make the most of their many chances will concern GuardiolaFor a while now, it has been apparent that the goals-against column in the Premier League table did not mean what it appeared to when considering Manchester City. It shows 35 goals conceded, the second lowest total in the league, just two behind the champions, Liverpool. But that does not mean City have the second-best defence in the league.Friday’s Champions League win over Real Madrid was highly impressive, an emphatic 2-1 defeat of the newly crowned Spanish champions that represented City’s finest European night at the Etihad of the Sheikh Mansour era, but it also highlighted that the fact...
Twenty-year-old excelled against Madrid and his talent is such he could play in any number of roles across midfield and attackNot long after Pep Guardiola arrived at Manchester City in the summer of 2016, a few of the academy players were invited to train with the first team during pre-season. Afterwards, Guardiola was almost beside himself with excitement. “Did you see that kid in the centre of the field?” he asked his staff incredulously. He liked the look of Brahim Díaz. He liked the look of Jadon Sancho. But it had taken only one training session for Guardiola to fall in love with Phil Foden.Still, the course of true love rarely runs in a straight line, and in many ways...
A traditional and unfashionable defence-first style has reaped rewards for the La Liga champions going into their belated Champions League reunion with Manchester CityA long, long time ago Manchester City beat Real Madrid 2-1 in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie. It was a strange game, in that while it was widely regarded as having been a tactical triumph for Pep Guardiola, evidence he could temper his philosophy, there was also a lingering sense that Madrid were there for the taking and that City playing their usual game might have had the tie won there and then. Related: Champions League last 16: previews and predictions for the remaining ties Zidane apparently has no defined philosophy. He has...
Winning the Champions League would be an extraordinary act of defiance from a team still waiting to learn if it will be cast out by Uefa and transformed into a sporting ghost shipHas there been a more existentially strange interlude in the history of any modern football club than the drama that could await Manchester City over the next three months?This is a question that may concern only City’s fans for now. It will get lost in the more general weirdness of sporting life in the time of plague. But bear with it, because while the prospect of finishing the football season is a journey without maps for all concerned, what awaits City from here could be both glorious and...