City crumble once more in a season of late collapses

The serial Champions League-winning manager sat in the media theatre at the Etihad Stadium and saluted his defence.

- RICHARD JOLLY

"I didn't think the team were able to make such a sacrifice as they did this evening," he said.

It wasn’t Pep Guardiola, though he fielded five men who were bought as centre-backs, who cost a combined £240m, four of whom began as the back four in a Champions League final when their side kept a clean sheet.

Rather, it was Carlo Ancelotti. The Italian’s reputation is not as a defensive strategist but then Ancelotti is football’s supreme antiphilosopher, with his amiable brand of winning, a chameleonlike ability to adapt to the players at his disposal. Who, as Real Madrid beat Manchester City 3-2, did not tend to be centrebacks or right-backs.

“Two of the four defenders were midfielders,” explained Jude Bellingham. Another was Raul Asensio, a 21-year-old in his 22nd game for Real. If there are another 222, this still seems destined to remain a memorable one.

So, too, for City. But for different reasons. It was the script of their season, shown to a wider audience. There is a broader narrative: that many do not realise how vulnerable this City are until they witness it. Even on an evening when, in terms of ambition and attacking threat, they delivered one of the best performances of their campaign, there came an end to sum it up.