On the touchline, even Pep Guardiola seemed to sense this was special. As the third went in, and Real Madrid were vanquished, he turned to the crowd and stood ramrod straight, both arms aloft, fists clenched. Manchester City are going to Istanbul, those are the plain facts; but not just any Manchester City. The best. The best of Guardiola's time here, perhaps the best English finalists there have been. The dismantling of Real Madrid was quite unlike anything we had seen. It wasn't just about one super striker, as so many have claimed this season. It is the team, the team Guardiola has built, the wonderful football it plays and the way it has inspired its followers to fall in love with a competition they once eschewed.
Manchester City fans, we are so often informed, still do not care for the Champions League. They bear grudges from past disagreements with the governing body, they boo the comically pompous tournament anthem, they don't care about past failures in Europe because they'd rather win the domestic league. All nonsense, of course. Manchester City fans love Manchester City, they love Manchester City playing beautifully, and they love Manchester City winning. And now they love the Champions League, too. For what better place is there to win, and play beautifully, than the Champions League.
And it's never full, or noisy, this ground. More rubbish. The Etihad Stadium sells out most weeks and when City are at their best it gets bold and boisterous just like any other ground. Is it Anfield under the lights in Europe? No, because nowhere is. Yet Real Madrid knew they were in a game from the start, and knew the locals were up for this long before it. Blue smoke in the surrounding streets, a ferocious takedown of anything UEFA-related before kickoff. So they boo? So what. Can't claim the place lacks atmosphere and then when there is atmosphere lecture the loyalists that it's the wrong kind. And if it's possible to Love United and Hate the Glazers, it's possibly to love
City in the Champions League while hating the body organising it. And they are no longer alone. After the debacle in Paris last year, there is no great love for UEFA at Anfield these days, either. They still sing about being champions of Europe, though.
Of course, City should embrace the Champions League. It would be a sporting tragedy if a team as great as this did not win European football's greatest prize. The arguments will rage about treble winners and backto-back European champions but, at half-time here, most observers were willing to agree that this is the best English football team they have seen. Certainly, no-one could remember a team that could have taken this Real Madrid side apart quite how City had done over 45 minutes. A few numbers? In the first 15 minutes, Real Madrid made 13 successful passes. After 30 minutes that was up to 45. In the same period, City's pass completion total was 237, and they led Madrid on attacking plays 29-0.
And there have been some great performances by English clubs in Europe. The greatest, arguably, was quite recent: Liverpool 4 Barcelona 0. Yet putting that night in context, Liverpool kicked off trailing 3-0 from the first leg. Naturally, they were hyped up, high energy, borderline frantic in their intensity. Their challenge when the game began was to pull off a win close to unimaginable. And they did it. Yet this was superior in some ways because City did not have to go all out like this. The game was poised at 1-1. City could have been measured, controlled, they could have dictated tempo, yet kept it steady. And they did. They demonstrated all of those qualities while also being hyped up, high energy, borderline frantic in their intensity. They were the best of all possible worlds, the supreme strategists. If there is such a thing as perfection on the field of play, Pep Guardiola will never acknowledge it. So let's just guess that in his dreams this is how his team plays. They school Real Madrid; they master Europe's masters. Luka Modric gets taken off after an hour because the game is passing him by; Vinicius Junior ends up in tense conversation with Carlo Ancelotti on the touchline because he can't get a kick. And then, when he finally does, Kyle Walker keeps pace with him and takes the ball from him like a dad teasing his son in the back garden, just to show the old man's still got it.
Perhaps it was for the best, too, that in the second-half the real Real turned up at last. Stung by Bernardo Silva's two goals they finally posed a threat and forced City to play on the counter. It was for the best. Had they dominated again it might have been claimed that Madrid merely suffered an off night, that City got a little lucky happening on their poorest performance of the season. By showing the resilience we know only too well, Madrid elevated City's brilliance. That City absorbed their pressure and doubled their lead is the greatest compliment of all. Madrid weren't just beaten by the better side on the night; City are truly the better side, the best side, maybe the best we have seen. They have proved it in the league, hunting down Arsenal, and now here, four goals up on mighty Madrid. And no-one can claim Real Madrid are callow, lack experience, or have been weakened by injuries. These are Europe's specialist cup winners, and they were beaten by the performance of the season. Certainly this season; maybe any.
www.theguardian.com