Three things we learned from the tournament

Pep Guardiola’s philosophy has reached its apotheosis

Way back in August, Pep Guardiola first experimented with a strikerless formation against Villarreal. It produced a devastating victory. But, for a number of reasons that ranged from fatigue to injury, it couldn’t produce the key victories in thecompetitions that mattered most... until now.

Guardiola’s philosophy was that, since midfielders tended to have the finest technique on the pitch, filling a team with them could see full control of a game.