The 'Petroderbi' conquers Europe

Messi against Guardiola. And we will see if Messi against Cristiano. The 'Petroderbi' between Manchester City and PSG will be the great attraction of the group stage of the Champions League. Two multi-million dollar teams, built on a checkbook, defying the market and the laws of financial Fair Play that have prevailed over the years. Two cheap ocean liners, two state clubs funded by United Arab Emirates, in the case of City, and Qatar, in the case of PSG. Two people, Mansour bin Zayed, Sheikh of the Emirates, and Mohammed bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Emir of Qatar, who dreamed – and dream – of winning the Champions League.

Also two styles of watching football, Guardiola's more possessive and obsessed with the ball, and Pochettino's, capable of adapting to any circumstance and rival. Two feelings within a city, Barcelona, ​​Pep's culé and Mauricio's parakeet. Who will Barça fans go with: Messi or Guardiola? Their two gods will be face to face.

Undoubtedly two candidates, City and PSG, to dethrone the current European bureaucracy, a challenge that seemed immense a decade ago but is getting closer and closer. The two will have Leipzig as the group's trap guestBy the way, a financially doped Leipzig otherwise as different but just as real as that of the energy drink giant Red Bull.

Two hobbies, the Parisian and the citizen, who saw these matches and these players on television, almost as something impossible to achieve. Something that did not go with them. Just over a decade of this, no more. Two teams full of Spaniards (Laporte, Rodrigo and Ferran Torres in City against Ramos, Bernat, Rico, Sarabia and Herrera in PSG). So that later they say that there are no players from our country in the current top elite.

Two games that will be real gifts and that will capture world attention. The one in the Park of the Princes with Messi establishing himself as the new king and that of the Etihad with Guardiola proving that he is the king of the board. In the memory of the semifinal of last year that the 'skyblues' took, not without suffering. They won coming back in the first leg and won again, not without trouble, in the second leg. It is the new Classic of European football. Neither Bayern nor Liverpool nor Milan nor Real Madrid. The PSG. And the City. The teams that oil built and that world football ended up accepting. There was no other choice. In a Champions derived from business, they are the new kings.