I may be accused of being a Pep Guardiola cheerleader, but I’m not having the criticism that he somehow bottled the Champions League. Again.
It’s an easy narrative, I know. He always overthinks the games in Europe, seems to find a way to lose a competition where he’s not lifted the trophy for 11 years.
Yep, that is a double-take kind of statistic, given he’s managed Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Manchester City in that time – but you know what, it happens.
Pep is in that club of managers who have won it twice, including Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Brian Clough. Only the great Bob Paisley, Carlo Ancelotti and Zinedine Zidane have lifted the European Cup three times.
The point is, football is like history... it’s just one thing after another.
You get games where a team are totally dominant, play almost the perfect match to be winning in the final minute and somehow still lose. Just ask Bayern Munich in 1999. Or Arsenal, I’m very happy to say, in the 2001 FA Cup Final.
What happened in Madrid on Wednesday night doesn’t show you that Guardiola is a bottler or a managerial nervous wreck, as I have since heard. It just demonstrates all you need to know about momentum and fear.
Momentum is such a force in the game. It drives you forward and can make you feel invincible, but, equally, it can drive you to generate uncontrollable fear and tension – and both can turn up in a single game.
For 90 minutes, City seemed invincible. They were unbelievably comfortable, utterly in control and playing with a proverbial cigar on. Then momentum came and smashed them senseless between the earlobes.
Will Man City ever win the Champions League under Pep Guardiola? Have your say in the comments below.
You could see it on the pitch. Madrid kept coming and in the final seconds, City suddenly felt that force, and stopped doing the things that had won them the game. They started pressing the panic button.
When was the last time you saw Ederson kick a ball from his hands straight to the opposition keeper? Fair play to Madrid, though. Is this the greatest Real team of all time? Not a chance. Are they one of the best teams in the world right now? Possibly not. But they still have world-class players.
Give any group of players such quality momentum and they’ll use it. Again, just ask Liverpool of 2005 vintage. You can’t fathom what happened at the Bernabeu, but Guardiola is not a fake, not finished.
Even City are vulnerable to the vagaries of momentum and the very real emotion of fear, if the stars align against them. That’s what happened in Madrid. Nothing more.
The question is: what happens next? Because momentum can be a cruel friend. No matter what Pep says, City are wounded right now. They will feel the fates are lined up against them and feel vulnerable. They will also experience some momentum going to opponents who may have thought they had no chance.
One thing you know Newcastle will have seen on Wednesday was the ease in which Madrid got some joy from throwing the ball into the penalty-area mixer. I can see Eddie Howe urging his players to stay in the contest as long as possible today, to give themselves a chance of doing something similar in the closing minutes. And, if they do, they have the players to hurt City from crosses.
It means there is still a long way to go in the title race, it means there are still more turns to come, if not this weekend, then the next. It means we may not have seen the last of momentum shifts this season.
Because that is the one absolute given in football.
