The Manchester City coach visited the Madrid stadium for the eleventh time, where he has only lost twice
Vinicius and De Bruyne’s kicks from outside the area leave the tie up in the air
The aura of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City coach, reappeared this Tuesday at the Santiago Bernabéu, a stage where he has experienced some of his best moments as a coach and where on his previous visit he undoubtedly suffered one of his most painful defeats. The 1-1 of the first leg leaves the tie in the air, whose outcome will be experienced in seven days at the Etihad Stadium. Unlike last season, this time the Madrid team will not have the pitch factor in their favour. He will play it face to face in a stadium where he has never been able to win. The balance in their four previous visits is two defeats and two draws, always in the Champions League.
Guardiola visited the Bernabéu for the eleventh time and showed that he has not lost his aura as the scourge of Real Madrid. His record there is six wins (five of them as Barcelona coach), two losses and three draws. Few coaches can boast similar stats on Real Madrid ground, although in recent years he seemed to have lost some of his magic and intimidating power. With Bayern Munich he suffered a defeat and with his two previous visits with City he added a victory and a defeat.
FIRST SHOT
Manchester City did not fail this time, although they were flirting with disaster as a result of the goal from Vinicius in the first shot on goal for the whites. Until then, the game had been a monologue for the English team, but Real Madrid did not lose their oremus and struck out when they smelled blood and found the first leak. The goal raised the whites and left the ‘sky blues’ touched, who paradoxically found the tie when they seemed to be suffering the most.
There was a lot of interest to see the debut of Erling Haaland at the Bernabéu, but the Norwegian hardly appeared. On the other hand, Vinicius and De Bruyne did, with two kicks from the edge of the area that leave the tie without a clear favorite for the second and final game.
Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti will experience their tenth personal duel at the Etihad Stadium, whose provisional balance is five wins for the Catalan and three for the Italian. This Tuesday they tied for the first time. Of course, the Madrid coach can boast of having always made things very difficult for his colleague in the highest continental competition. The two have met five times and Ancelotti clearly dominates with three wins, one loss and yesterday’s draw. The Italian seems to have found the formula, although on Tuesday he verified that the Guardiola effect is still very much alive when he has to visit the Santiago Bernabéu.
RECEPTION
As expected, the Catalan coach was not well received. The Madrid fans received him with an impressive whistle as soon as his name appeared on the scoreboard after the Manchester City starting eleven and the list of substitute players were announced. The Madrid stadium, which was sold out with 63,485 spectators, of whom some two thousand were City fans, was happy to deal with the Catalan coach. Real Madrid fans are very aware that Guardiola was a real scourge during his successful period at Barcelona. They faced him fifteen times and Real Madrid were only able to defeat him twice, while the Catalan celebrated nine victories. An intimidating balance.
The one who did receive him with his characteristic chivalry was Ancelotti. Guardiola, who was wearing a T-shirt and a dark jacket, embraced the Italian moments before the game started. It was an affectionate greeting between two coaches who respect and admire each other. Both have brilliant careers in the world of the benches. Both accumulate more than 2,000 matches in the elite, nothing more and nothing less. 814 add up to Catalan and 1,240 to Italian.