Manchester City's adventure in the Champions League is coming to an end. After conceding a defeat during the back-back dam against Real Madrid (3-1, cumulative score 6-3), Wednesday evening, the Skyblues say prematurely goodbye to competition this year. It must be said that the meeting was complicated for the men of Pep Guardiola. Nonexistent on the lawn of Santiago Bernabeu, the Citizens did not get a lot of opportunities, leaving Real Madrid to deploy its game and validate its ticket for the round of 16.
Confirmation that this 2024-2025 season definitely does not smile at Manchester City. Fourth in the Premier League, the reigning England champion has a lot of difficulty. While the winner of the 2022-2023 edition was expected to play the leading roles in the Champions League, the Citizens finished 22nd out of 36 in the League phase classification. Pep Guardiola had also entrusted at a press conference before the meeting against Real Madrid that the current Manchester City was not at its best: “We are no longer the machine that we have been for eight years.”
The sublime lob of Kylian Mbappé on a thoroughly millimeter pass of Raul Asencio 🤩 pic.twitter.com/tltabv2df1
– French Football Weekly (@football_fr)
FEBRUARY 19, 2025
Pep Guardiola, the end of a cycle?
Even if the mission promised to be difficult against Real Madrid in its current form, we were far from imagining that Manchester City would let themselves be jostling so much. Winners of the Champions League in 2023, Quart-de-Finalists last season, nothing suggested that Erling Haaland's teammates would have as much difficulty.
At the end of the meeting, the Spanish manager wanted to salute the performance of his opponent Merengue: “I have played the best Madrid in recent years, they are able to have long possessions, defend, run, when they want to play high, when they are low. We have to accept it, it is the best team that won, so congratulations to Real Madrid. It is a fantastic team, which deserves to pass. »»
Asked about the reasons for the failure of the Citizens, Pep Guardiola indicated that it was perhaps talking about the end of an era which requires a renewal: “” NWe did something historic in our country for many years by winning so many competitions that we had never completed before (…) Things do not last forever, everything does not last forever. There are players who are a certain age. »»
The goal for Manchester City is now to revive in the league and try to stay in the top 4 of the Premier League, synonymous with qualification in the Champions League next season.
