The Citizens have a chance to win their first ever Champions League. Will quality prevail or will pressure and nervousness overwhelm the players again?

It’s right here. A corrective attempt, Manchester City have earned their repartee after two years. The Citizens have a second chance to win their first ever Champions League today. On paper, they are the clear favourites, but pressure and nervousness is a tricky thing.

Let’s go back to 2021. Manchester City went past PSG with Mbappé and Neymar to their first ever Champions League final, where they were to face Chelsea.

The favourite was clear, after all Chelsea had struggled all autumn, sacked Frank Lampard in January and only Thomas Tuchel got the team going. But still, this was not a team to be feared and should win the Champions League.

The Citizens were playing top class football, had won the Premier League and were poised to finally break the curse of even the most prestigious club competition. It’s just that things have gone a bit to Pep Guardiola’s head.

He started thinking and figuring out how to surprise his opponents until he got himself tangled up in it. He sent a line-up to the final without a typical top striker and defensive midfielder.

A diamond in the middle of the pitch of Gündogan, Silva, Foden and De Bruyne to support the attack from the false nine position. Mahrez and Sterling were still playing on the flanks.

Only the strikers Agüero and Jesus remained on the bench, but that wouldn’t have been such a problem, the Citizens played without a striker often that season. But nobody really understood the omission of Rodri and Fernandinho, the absence of a defensive shield had a big impact on Manchester’s play.

Guardiola’s promise

In the end, all Chelsea needed was one shot from Kai Havertz’s kick to claim the trophy. The Citizens gave a very lacklustre, unsavoury performance well below their capabilities that day. Even Kyle Walker admitted that before this year’s semi-final, that nervousness overcame the players then and they wanted a second chance badly.

Pep Guardiola, for his part, promised reporters after the semi-final that this time he would not try to come up with brilliant tactical moves and leave the team as it is.

The Citizens have a tremendous chance that may not be repeated. Inter are certainly a solid team or they wouldn’t have made the final, but honestly, they are quite possibly one of the weakest teams to make the final in years. It certainly has its quality, but it certainly doesn’t reach the quality of last year’s Real Madrid, Liverpool or 2020 Bayern.

The Citizens couldn’t have asked for a more difficult opponent in the final of the cursed Champions League. On paper and in terms of odds, they are the clear favourite, but that is not what you play for in the final of the most prestigious competition.

Black scenarios

What if the pressure of being so close overwhelms the Citizens players again and ties their feet? The fact that virtually everyone already considers the Citizens the winners beforehand doesn’t help either.

What if Inter score a lucky goal early on and then retreat into a deep block that City won’t know how to handle? The minutes in the second half will go by at a rocket pace and suddenly there will be nervousness and a lot of pressure.

Here, the Citizens will not have a rematch or more league rounds where they can make amends. This is why they have never won the Champions League, because once everything is going, they might be the best in the world. But as soon as things go wrong, they lack a leader in the team to take charge and make the decision themselves. The team then relies on Guardiola to figure something out for the rematch or the next rounds, but there’s no time for that in the final.

But unlike in years past, the Citizens have one triumph up their sleeve. Killer Erling Haaland, who doesn’t even seem to have any nerves. Just kick the ball into the box and he’ll deal with it. He could be the imaginary tongue in the cheek that will hand the Citizens a coveted triumph.

Source: UEFA