Manchester City show qualities in Munich that could make this a historic season

Pep Guardiola's side secure place in Champions League semis ahead of FA Cup semi and title showdown with Arsenal.

Thu, 20 Apr, 2023 - 06:55

Ian Whittell

PEP Guardiola has been preaching for some time in Manchester City’s treble-chasing season that every game is a sudden-death cup final: lose and go home.

For once, the greatest manager of his generation was wrong - at least as far as last night’s visit to the Allianz Arena was concerned as he took his team through to the Champions League semis.

City were placed under intense pressure for spells but, after their majestic 3-0 first leg win last week, never looked in danger of exiting the competition, even if they had conceded a goal. Not that losing is apparently an option at the moment for his players.

The next six days, however, will be a different matter entirely.

Saturday sees Guardiola take City to Wembley, for an FA Cup semi-final against Premier League-bound Sheffield United - a competition which he has won only once and which he admits has often seen City at their least effective.

Incredibly, in his seven seasons at the Etihad, Guardiola has now taken his team through to six FA Cup semi-finals and, so far, won just one; even that, a not too convincing 1-0 win over Brighton in 2019.

But, impressive as Paul Heckingbottom’s team has been this season, they will, surely, offer City little concern even if, as expected, Guardiola rotates a squad that is not as deep as it has been in recent seasons.

The reason for the possible need to rotate key players is simple when Guardiola contemplates the next fixture after Wembley - the meeting at the Etihad on Wednesday with current league leaders Arsenal and a game which, for once, will warrant the full force of BT Sports’ marketing hype.

The title dynamic has changed in the last two games, with Arsenal dropping four points; a mini-blip which has meant that, should they win their game in hand later this season at Brighton, City could even afford a draw next Wednesday and still take the title on goal difference by winning all their other fixtures.

But defeat would would throw a completely different dynamic into the mix - hence Guardiola’s mantra that every remaining fixture is a matter of life and sudden death as City try and emulate Manchester United’s legendary treble-winning performance of 1999.

All of which probably made City’s visit to Munich the perfect preparation; an intense test in a hostile atmosphere but one which never saw Guardiola’s team in serious danger of defeat, thanks to their first leg cushion.

Bayern’s forwards, particularly Kingsley Coman, offered Guardiola’s defenders an energetic work-out, with his goalkeeper Ederson equal to the challenge when called upon.

There was also the collector’s item in the first half of an Erling Haaland mistake, as he missed from the penalty spot, but even that rare sight of the Norwegian looking fallible could be seen as good timing - better to err with a three-goal lead last night than in the dying minutes of a goalless draw with Arsenal next week. And, of course, Haaland, true to type, made up for that mistake with his second half goal.

There were some early concerns as Bayern made a blistering start and Coman tortured City left-back Nathan Ake - a reminder that the central defender is playing out of position there since Guardiola loaned Joao Cancelo to Bayern in January without having a replacement lined up.

To add to Ake’s difficult evening, he later went down with a concerning hamstring injury. And that problem position has been a constant reminder that, for all they are rightly referenced as the best club side in the world currently, there is not great depth in Guardiola’s squad this season.

Yes, City beat Liverpool 4-1 recently without the injured Haaland, but no sane observer is suggesting they are better without his 48 goals.

The form that Kevin De Bruyne is currently exhibiting suggests his loss to injury at this stage of the season could be costly. The same could be said, at present, of John Stones, in his new centre-half-cum-centre-midfield role, or goalkeeper Ederson.

There was a reminder of that lack of depth against Leicester on Saturday when City raced into a three-goal lead and were left clinging on, rather too anxiously, to a 3-1 victory after Guardiola admitted he started making his in-game substitutes way too early.

In fact, Guardiola often foregoes using subs at all, although we can expect a liberal use of rotation over the final six weeks of the campaign - De Bruyne or Haaland, maybe even both, could be rested on Saturday, for example, especially with Phil Foden on the bench last night after his recent appendix operation.

But what Guardiola’s smaller squad has displayed this season is a high level of maturity, composure and game management - all of which were on display in the white hot atmosphere of the Allianz Arena last night.

They will be qualities which City will need to show in the 13 games they could have remaining in this potentially memorable season.

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