Since 2016, Pep Guardiola has been desperately searching for the last piece of CL for an almost idiot.
The puzzle piece may be Norwegian.
A claim that sounds obvious and naive at the same time.
Where’s the Champions League? F*ck, I don’t know.
There was something incredibly realistic, almost giving up a bit, about it Pep Guardiola When he had a press conference before another season where everyone in the football world knows what Manchester Longed for most.
Because he knows how it usually ends.
He’s sat there before before CL seasons where he’s entered City with the favourites. And he has repeatedly failed, in all different shapes and forms, in his mission to bring that reflection into the home where the two pioneers in sports laundry, miraculously, still fail.
Panicked and almost panicked, he’s been searching for the answer since 2016 without finding it.
And every time you’re convinced he’s found it, Real Madrid’s comeback is a miracle (in the eyes of Pep’s favorite this year too because they “always win the title anyway”) or an excessive tactic standing in their way.
When I state then that in the end they seem to have found that piece of the puzzle, in other words, it doesn’t seem very credible – because we’ve said it before.
but that Erling Braut Haaland Dealing with him since he arrived in the Premier League, he’s not credible either.
Perfect player to fill the role
He crushed a more stable version of Sevilla in this tournament before, with a Dortmund shirt.
So, for him to be in the right place at the right time early on and give City the lead in Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan, it came as no surprise.
That he had done so without seeing him before was also not surprising.
After all, Haaland scored ten goals in six competitive games before Tuesday. And it was like the (almost) tenth touch of the ball.
In other words, he’s exactly the kind of striker the club was considered to be lacking when looking for offenses in the perfect light blue front. All indications are that he is also the perfect player to fill this particular role.
He was also in a perfect position when the goalkeeper returned, giving him his twelfth goal in his seventh game with City. That’s before he was replaced by two goals in 19 ball touches. In the right place, at the right time, as I said.
And if there’s one thing the city needs, it’s just the thing.
It started mechanically as before
Pep Guardiola’s impression at the press conference about the resignation and the “I don’t know how it goes” attitude can undoubtedly be interpreted as a way to shift focus and take the pressure off City who are currently under pressure to “finally” succeed. In a way, a reminder that it’s not in a comfortable 4-0 win in the opening group stage that titles can be salvaged and important titles written.
After all, City had started CL group games mechanically, calmly and dominant many times before, but fell flat on their face in the spring.
But then they didn’t have Erling Braut Haaland.
– Pep said in his press conference, “We will not win the gold medal thanks to Haaland alone.”
However, to say that it has remarkable significance is not an exaggeration. Going beyond calling it the missing piece of the puzzle seems obvious, but it’s also a bit naive looking at the story.
So far anyway.
