Leipzig-Manchester City (X/21.00)
The coach continues with the challenge of raising the Champions League at the head of a ‘sky blue’ team that has lost joy this season, with Haaland as the flag and Julin Álvarez out of focus
Pep Guardiola He had always conveyed to his acquaintances that he would not spend his life coaching great teams. That his real dream was to grow old taking charge of the lower ranks, who knows if Barcelona, where he could instruct and watch children grow without having to bear the emotional burden with which he has become unaccustomed to living.
But Guardiola continues in the center of the track, in charge of a Manchester City that he does not intend to abandon no matter how serious the investigation by the Premier League is for alleged financial irregularities, and with the suspicion that his great British work will not have been completed. until reaching the Champions League title.
There is not a year in which Guardiola is not reminded that he has not won the great continental trophy again since he did it with Barcelona and under the protection of Messi (Rome 2009 and London 2011). Or how he threaded torments with Bayern in three consecutive semifinals. Or how, already at City, he missed a unique opportunity when he lost the final (0-1) against that Chelsea of Tuchel the one no one seemed to trust (2021). With Guardiola involved, no matter how much he took four of the last five Premier titles, nothing is enough. More now that it has Erling Haalandwho has not escaped suspicion despite having scored 32 goals in 31 games for City.
It has been in this seventh season of Guardiola as coach of the team sky blue, however, when the wear and tear on the group’s structures has begun to be more than an insinuation. Beyond the surprising flight to Munich of João Cancelo, one of the footballers that Guardiola took to another dimension making him believe that he could be much more than a winger -the Portuguese demanded a leading role that seemed doomed to lose-, Manchester City has been losing this season that choral display that only makes sense when the precision is very high. The Arsenal of ArtetaDespite his last defeat against City (1-3) on February 15, he is the great aesthetic entertainer this season. He continues to lead the league table. And City has no choice but to resume its path in the Champions League after a disappointing draw against Nottinngam Forest (1-1), a match in which he incidentally scored. Bernardo Silvawho last summer was left sighing for an offer from Barcelona that never came.
Gvardiol y el Leipzig
Manchester City, then, visits Leipzig this Wednesday in the first leg of the Champions League round of 16 with the hope of fulfilling the still forbidden dream of the Abu Dhabi royal family, which comes from seeing how Qatar last December he relaxes with his World Cup. Haaland did not participate in that tournament (Norway did not qualify), but the Argentine did. Julian Alvarezwhose participation in the City ranks continues to dwindle, always in the shadow of the great Nordic striker.
Julin Álvarez, who is called La Araña, touched the sky in the World Cup semifinals against Croatia. That night in which he scored two goals, he took advantage of a memorable play by Messi against Guardiol (yes, the defensive stronghold of Leipzig) and also emulated Kempes in the 1978 final with an action in which he exhibited superhuman determination.
But all those feats, once Julin Álvarez returned to Manchester, remained as stories to remember, not on the field, but on the bench, with Haaland, Mahrez y Grealish habitually occupying the three offensive positions of the City. The 23-year-old striker from the Albiceleste, in fact, has only scored one goal in the Premier (on January 19 against Tottenham) since he returned from a World Cup that now seems so far away.
According to the criteria of
Know more