A Tale of Two Cities
No, this got nothing to do w/Charles Dickens himself. On the first glance, this sounds like some kind half-baked post-mortem on why the city of Manchester is feeling so blue now. However, it must also be stated that Munich itself is also a city. Hence the title here.
Let me be this frank: those damned Saxons blew it. Big time. The first leg was the Anglo-Saxons' best chance of attaining final glory. Win the match and whatever possibility of the odd away goal doing them in would be nothing more than a moot question. Los Blancos would most likely be forced to go all out, Zinedine "ta tête" Zidane would most likely be headbutted out of office no thanks to El Dinero himself. In other words, Manuel "will he nosedive like a peregrine falcon?" Pellegrini would have the strategic upper hand.
As it turned out, Zizou now has the license to kill like what he did to Marco "il petto indistruttibile" Materazzi six seasons ago. City will be forced to go forward, the city of Madrid can afford to sit back and counter. In the event Cristiano "cruise rocket 7" Ronaldo is fighting fit, Los Blancos will have the deadliest winger ever lived since George "best of the best in Belfast" Best decided to put football laces before booze and chiobu.
As for Bayern München, Pep "not you, Pep" Guardiola is also now staring at his own Pexit. No thanks to Diego "#FootballTrollingGod" Simeone, the bazillionaires from Germany finally got a taste of what the working class fighters are capable of. If there's any team worthy of respect from Die Schwarzgelben, it'd be Los Rojiblancos. Likewise, Cholo should be seen as every ITE graduate's role model and Heather Chua's worst nightmare. After all, this amigo is anything but the modern football's equivalent of an A*STAR scholar.
Only weapon available?
Pellegrini must be sweating over David "El Jinete" Silva's fitness for sure. Right now, City needs to put things right on the domestic front in order to stabilise the dressing room morale. After that, the tricky question will be this: Who will form the attacking trio behind the lone striker, Maradona's son-in-law or no Maradona's son-in-law?
Assuming that El Jinete himself won't be lacing up his boots, here are my estimated 3 amigos.
Kevin "not der Brünnhilde" De Bruyne. Surely he's a shoo-in here. Previously rejected in the southern hemisphere of England just because he most likely couldn't be bothered to run backwards, he has now flourished under the license to kill given by Pellegrini himself. This boy ain't a manual labourer, but a creative artist. While Eden "the Duke of Hazard" Hazard is capable of grit and graft, that other Belgian bloke just refused to see things the hardworking way. The way I see things come the 2nd leg will be this: De Bruyne will be playing in hole 9.
I don't know what happened to Samir "not to be confused with Nazri Nasir" Nasri, but I assumed seeing Jesús "c'mon, he's not a god!" Navas means Pellegrini actually prefers players who are more humble. As a winger who oddly operates somewhat like a 2nd striker, surely there will be die-hard romantics wishing for a miracle. I'm pretty sure Jesús won't see much of the ball, but it won't mean a thing if he can create a miracle. Like scoring the first goal like what we did against Hull recently. Either way, it's up to De Bruyne to give this amigo some much needed Belgian chocs, waffles, and beer.
The Kop faithful will be having fun with this part of my post. Not ever since the infamous Hillsborough disaster have the whole of Merseyside witnessed a bailout along the epic scale of Iliad. Raheem "show me the real Sterling" Sterling isn't so much of someone like Hector, Ajax the Greater, or Achilles. Rather, neutrals will most likely liken him to Odysseus while the Kop faithful would so dearly love to liken him to Ajax the Lesser.
Regardless of his ever frustrating inconsistency and that ironic last name, Sterling holds the key to unlocking Zizou's defence. This boy has the pace and trickery. While my verdict is still open on whether he's truly worth more than Riyad "first name sounds like a city, last name sounds Jason Mraz" Mahrez and Jamie "life of the party" Vardy, this do-or-die moment won't really kill his chances of proving me wrong. At worst, he's just really NOT worth that insane amount of GBP. Either way, I'm not gonna lose any sleep over this. *shrugs*
What the English city slickers must do...
Firstly and foremost, trying to control possession via the holding mid area is nothing less than the most retarded thing Pellegrini shouldn't do. The white hot pace in the form of CR7 and GB11 will rip the entire formation to shreds. Like how you shred paper using the paper shredder. Period.
City must play the ball forward to De Bruyne asap (that is assuming that guy in hole 9 is from some country full of nice chocs, tasty waffles, and fine beer). The moment City decided to hold down possession anywhere from the back till the firing line, the Madrid firing squad will make sure Francisco Franco's firing squad will be made to look slow and stupid.
City must also play the ball hard and fast. Plenty of aggression and penetration. It doesn't matter whether it's down the center or out wide. It doesn't matter whether it's Sterling or Kun. If City plays like a stereotypical S'porean pragmatist, City will die. Period.
What the Spanish city slickers can do...
If you assume Zizou will try controlling the game from the back, you're most likely right. The problem right now lies in Karim "Le Benz" Benzema. Without that Mercedes Benz striker, will Zizou be able to call up a Rolls Royce striker?
A viable option will be playing Gareth "not Christian" Bale as the stand-in Le Benz. We may still see GB11 as a right winger, but this bloke is really versatile. Like how Batman fights his battles every time. If Ronaldo is the Superman of the Galácticos, then Bale is without a doubt that Batman of the team. When GB11 first started out (if I remember correctly, it should be under some Spanish bloke named Ramos), he's a leftback. Because he always opened his team up for counter attacks down the flank, another bloke decided to move him further up the field as a left winger (I still remember correctly that said bloke may have enabled Mark "unrelated to my cousin Mark" Ronson to win big). Under that AVBeng, he was deployed as a striker. That's basically how GB11 scored big both on and off the pitch. See where this is going?
Like that poor bloke who was done away with by El Dinero (and soon to be as well in courtesy of Al Dirham), Zizou must make the correct call on his attacking 3. Unlike City, however, the rich half of Madrid tends to play a 4-3-3. Which means Zizou would have an easier time deciding on his choice of firing squad. After all, 4-3=1.
At the same time, Los Blancos also have a tradition of being defensively better compared to Franco's most hated team being offensively the best. Take a brief look at the past coaches sitting on that Siege Perilous. You have the current boss of La Furia Roja who managed to put Newcastle's current football on the global stage from 2010 to 2012. Incidentally, El Dinero was the biggest boss back then. Then you also have that Italian bloke who had to learn how to swear in English before sitting on that other Siege Perilous (last time I checked, that angmoh Roy is still alive. Maybe he's really England's Galahad). And no, El Dinero wasn't bankrolling the team during Madrid's Roman era. It was Ramón "not that bad guy" Calderón.
P.S: Getting late now. Will be doing the 2nd leg of Batalla de la Capital asap. Until then, enjoy dreaming about Simeone's trolling mug.
