Guardiola lives through hell and is eliminated at the Bernabéu (3-1)

BarcelonaSometimes you get the feeling that, whatever you do, you're going to lose. That you're always going to lose, as if you were the victim of a spell. This year, Pep Guardiola feels that, whatever he does, he's going to lose for the first time in his long career. For years, he has tormented his rivals by creating winning projects, but this year, the coach from Santpedor is not getting any results. On a night to forget, Real Madrid made City's wound worse by eliminating them from the Champions League in a match that had no history. It was too easy for a Madrid led by the talent of Mbappé. The Whites are having a big party and Guardiola is experiencing a real via crucis.

Although Guardiola had not stopped thinking about how he could do it to turn around a tie that had already become complicated after losing the first leg cruelly (2-3), it was already clear after three minutes of play that he had nothing to do. Mbappé turned a long pass behind the centre-backs into the first goal in a play in which centre-back Stones was injured. Everything against, nothing against.

This is not Guardiola's year, as he tries to renew a City punished by injuries. In fact, the coach from Santpedor surprised by leaving Haaland on the bench to play the Egyptian Marmoush, who, signed in January, had just scored three goals for Newcastle. The former Barça player Nico played in the middle of the field alongside the former Barça player Gündogan, and the young Uzbek defender Khusanov came in at right back. As expected, the English had a lot of the ball and were looking for spaces, taking care of the ball, always brave, always ready to die in football, if necessary, defending their ideals. City touched the ball a lot, and Madrid little. Nothing more is needed in Ancelotti's team. Asencio, the defender, raised his head, saw Mbappé running far away and sent him a very long pass, as the quarterbacks in American football. The Frenchman was faster and did not forgive in a play that could not be more graphic of how one plays and how the other plays. One wants to attack and build, one does enough waiting and hitting. Question of styles.

Forced to score two goals, City began to play the ball half frustrated, without finding spaces in the defense of a Madrid that, when it could, tried to activate the Brazilians Vini and Rodrygo to run out. City did not know very well what to do with the ball, without movements behind the white defense, with many players off-center, arriving late. Little by little, Madrid began to gain more possession and played a good game in part because the rival could not bite. Asencio, the Canarian center back who has become a starter almost by chance amid debates about his participation in a sexual scandal, played a magnificent game - he won every duel in the English forward line. And in attack Mbappé knew that the game plan was ideal for his game and scored the second before the break, after receiving a pass from Rodrygo. A hip-first shot from the Frenchman and Madrid were already winning 2-0. The former PSG player celebrated the goal by imitating with his hand the action he had done, as if he wanted everyone to understand what he had done.

A lost team

Losing the tie 5-2, Manchester City was burning in the hell of a Champions League to forget. Of the ten games played in the Champions League this season, they have won just three against lesser rivals such as Slovan Bratislava, Sparta Prague and Bruges. Little for a team that was always competitive until recently. A project that this year has suffered injuries, but also a worrying mental block in many games. In the second half, in fact, City became smaller: they passed the ball in a sterile way, without players who showed any rebellious spirit. Nobody moved, nobody looked for an individual play. Little would Ancelotti's team have expected that it would be so easy for them to overcome this tie against a team that two years ago deservedly won the Champions League.

The one who took best advantage of it was Mbappé, who would score his first hat trick in the Madrid shirt with a dry shot that eluded Ederson. The Frenchman, who always seeks the cameras to please himself, was making the three-goal gesture over and over again, just in case someone hadn't seen it. There was half an hour left to play and City could only look at the clock and pray that it would come in the 90th minute. It was a real torment for a City that would not shoot between the posts until the 75th minute with Foden. The away goal would not come until the last minute, with a free kick saved by Courtois in which Nico followed the ball into the net. A sad goal. Nothing to do with that City of two years ago, when Guardiola's team was beautiful, electric and brave. Now it is a soul in pain. A cycle in Manchester is coming to an end. Guardiola has work to do.