Champions Capitulate

Having just finished the last of 6 days in a row at work I returned to my flat in dire need of a boost, so naturally I checked today’s football scores and damn did I find what I needed.

Tonight the Etihad witnessed a new low in the history of it’s Guardiola era, throwing away an unassailable lead in the final 15 minutes of a match. Oh how the mighty have fallen…

This summer, after their unprecedented 4th successive title, I wrote a blog about the new dynasty ready to conquer football and how much of a threat they were to the unpredictability that makes our beautiful game the life blood of so many souls.

So to see them collapsing like a house of cards, shattering their aura of invincibility and returning them to the plain of mere humans is a glorious thing, except for the home fans obviously.

Losing 4 games in a row was bad enough but collapsing so swiftly at home in the Champions League has to be a new low, especially when a lot of your best available players last the full 90.

Erling Haaland opened the host’s account from 12 yards in the dying embers of the first half and when he completed his brace just 10 minutes of game time later to put City 3-0 up, Ikay Gundogan providing the filling in the Haaland sandwich, the game looked sewn up.

A triple substitution 20 minutes from the end derailed City’s train and sent them to collapse city. Conceding the first of the comeback 5 mins after the substitution was a bad sign and from there it was all downhill.

Sure it took till the penultimate minute of the match for the inevitable equaliser to come, but the point is it feels inevitable now that City will collapse if you apply the right pressure.

For City to go from ‘every game is theirs to win’ to ‘just wait till they capitulate’ months after their latest title should be a shock for the home faithful, but to me it’s a reminder that nothing lasts forever.

Long may it remain so and long may the glorious unpredictability of the beautiful game be it’s only constant.