City's unpredictability tilts Champions League hopes

It is the sort of result that can mark a team out as potential champions of Europe. Beating Real Madrid in the Bernabeu, at the least, could offer an indication a team is equipped to defeat them in a final, semifinal or quarterfinal. Though, more than most, Pep Guardiola can testify to Real’s winning habit when the stakes are highest.

- RICHARD JOLLY SENIOR FOOTBALL CORRESPONDENT

His reaction to Manchester City’s 2-1 triumph in the Spanish capital was to argue they would have to play better in the knockout stages of the competition. At least now, with their manager thinking they only require four points to be fast-tracked to the last 16, they should be spared the playoff round that brought their elimination by Real last season. Yet if Guardiola may be football’s most famous perfectionist, it could have been the realist in him who spoke when he said: “In the last stages, you have to be better.”

Because a reading of the scoreline and the table could suggest City, champions as recently as 2023, fourth in the standings now, rank among the favourites. Guardiola felt the game offered another impression. Real were superior at 1-0; would City have come back from 2-0?

An evening that became a triumph for a makeshift fullback for City started off with the tormenting of two. Nico O’Reilly was their first scorer, but only after being troubled by Rodrygo. Matheus Nunes looked outclassed by Vinicius Junior. Guardiola won the Champions League by repurposing centre-backs as fullbacks, in Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji, but they brought a defensive solidity.