Pep Guardiola’s side have the perfection of a finely executed military campaign, the perfection of wealth and strength
On the biggest stage, in their favourite competition, the most dominant club in Champions League history had been placed under intolerable levels of stress, and simply detonated.It finished four-nil, and perhaps that flattered Madrid a little. Ultimately only the flailing fingertips of Thibaut Courtois prevented this from becoming a total humiliation, the sort of scoreline that eventually earns a game its own Wikipedia page.
What does remain? Certainly very little of this great Madrid side. Everyone knew this was a team in need of a transitional phase, a shift from the old to the new. Nobody expected it to happen in a single night. Modric – horrible performance – went off on 63 minutes. Kroos – not much better – departed a little later. Karim Benzema looked old. Will any of them ever play a game of this magnitude again? Maybe, but not together.
With the greatest of respect to Matteo Darmian and Edin Dzeko, it feels safe to assume that City will finally slake their Champions League thirst against. They are so clearly the best team in the world at this point that it already feels a little passé, a little obvious, to say so. Nor should we imagine that City have only just started playing at this level. The last team to beat them over 180 minutes in this competition was Tottenham.
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