“The 4 could have been 8…”

Ancelotti has a clear recipe for the return. He repeated it several times in the press conference after the first leg. The team has to improve on defense. “It’s quite simple. With the ball, very well. Without the ball we have to do better”, said the Reggiolo coach. There’s no more. And it is that, at times, it seemed that the whites were close to missing the train to the final. City arrived, even with the score 2-0 and the buzz from the stands was constant. However, Ancelotti pulled on his survival kit, his partner of the year: Benzema and Vinicius. The feeling among the press present at the Etihad was that the white team had managed to breathe when they tightened the rope the most. Something that is endorsed by taking a look at the main english headlines hours after the disputed thriller.

“City put on a magnificent display as they peppered Real Madrid’s goal for long periods, but Carlo Ancelotti’s team kept getting up from the canvas to stay, somehow, in the real fight to play another final”picked up the BBCwhich valued the tremendous offensive game played by the skyblue. But without daring to rule out a Madrid that has resisted standing up, no matter how many right hands that come, his way of life.

The Daily Mail affects the barrage of chances generated by Guardiola’s men. Of all the colors. Up to four times they beat a Courtois who could do little in terms of goals. However, they could have been more. Militao and Alaba did not have, without a doubt, their first part and in the second part of, forgive the redundancy, the second part also pushed until they could have done a greater damage. “The four could have been eight if City had taken their chances. They were a better team, but they could not leave Madrid on the canvas and there is no reason to believe that the same frenzy cannot be repeated in the second leg.

“Manchester City take a small lead heading into the Bernabéu after a thrilling 4-3 victory over Real Madrid,” headlines their match report Sky Sports, very aseptic. While the Telegraph brings a new concept to the tie or, rather, to the crossover between both teams: “Manchester City wins the seven-goal Clasico, but misses the opportunity to put an end to Real Madrid’s resistance.” With the constancy that these City-Madrid and Madrid-City are repeated, it is not surprising that there are already media that coin the expression of Clásico. It is the rivalries that mark the suitability of the names and we are witnessing the birth of one that is increasingly common and charged with tension.

“Destroy the manual, knock down blackboards…”

In The Sun they place a most explanatory headline: “A magnificent City beats Madrid 4-3, but the brilliance of Benzema last gives hope to the Spanish”. However, a quick click on the match report brings up a rhetorical opening paragraph: “Destroy the tactics manual, knock over whiteboards, throw away the laptop full of data analysis. Just give us more of this, please. Normally we accuse Guardiola of thinking too much at this point in the Champions League, but it would be ridiculous to imagine that much thought was put into such a frenzy.” It was a boxing match in which both fighters brought out their best shots. dream of more The most repeated word in the British media is “thriller“. Exactly what the match was.