List of All Articles with Tag 'a'

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Jack Grealish is confident of reaching the Champions League final after Manchester City fought back to claim a draw in the first leg of their semi-final against Real Madrid. Kevin De Bruyne struck a stunning equaliser at the Bernabeu on Tuesday night as City came from behind to draw 1-1 after an equally brilliant opener from Real’s Vinicius Junior. The result leaves the tie delicately poised ahead of next week’s return leg at the Etihad Stadium. City are seeking revenge for their loss to Real at the same stage last season and Grealish feels the Premier League side’s home record gives them the edge. The England midfielder told BT Sport: “We have a new team this year, different players. “We’ve learned so much since last year. Now we have the perfect balance of experience and a few youngsters who are just world-class. “I think we just have quality and I’ve never felt so confident going on to the pitch and having these players around me. “Within ourselves at the Etihad, we feel unstoppable there. We came here to try and win, but it shows our character to go a goal down – it’s always difficult to play at a place like this. “In the end I think it was a fair result. They had their chances, we had a few as well.” City controlled a lot of the early play but Real soaked up pressure and hit them with a fine counter-attacking goal. City manager Pep Guardiola praised his side for the way they fought back when under severe pressure. Guardiola said: “It was a really tight game. Congratulations to the team because this team (Real) are always so difficult for their history and also their quality. “We started really well and when we were better they made an incredible transition (and scored). “When they were better than us in the second half, we scored. It’s open to Manchester, it will be a final for our people and we look forward to it.” Real manager Carlo Ancelotti was booked amid commotion on the touchline as De Bruyne celebrated his 67th-minute equaliser. The Italian revealed afterwards he had been complaining the ball went out of play in the build-up to the City goal. He also claimed he had seen proof he was correct. Ancelotti said: “The ball was off the pitch. Technology said it and I don’t understand why VAR didn’t check it “The referee didn’t pay attention to many things tonight.” Ancelotti, however, was happy enough with his side’s performance and the state of the tie. He said: “We have to play like this again next week. Our strategy was good, we weren’t worried when they had possession. “Then the second half was completely different. We had the ball and created opportunities. We are very satisfied. “ Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live Jay Rodriguez revels in ‘surreal’ promotion as Burnley celebrate title Rain ends Ireland’s automatic World Cup hopes Dispute over Emiliano Sala’s transfer to Cardiff to be resolved in French courts

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Pep Guardiola reveals how Man City need to improve ahead of Champions League semi-final second leg.

Two satisfying, spectacular thumps of a ball, from similar range, into the same side of the same goal. One arrowed into the top corner, one the bottom. There are times when stages seem designed for players, when they are at that sweet spot where talent and momentum collide, when they have the force of personality to impose their gifts on the major occasion. But when there are two, when they are on opposite sides, Kevin de Bruyne cancelled out Vinicius Junior. Vinicius got the winner in last season’s final. The sense that De Bruyne, like everyone else at City, remains unfulfilled in the Champions League was underlined by the 2021 final, which he departed with a broken nose and fractured eye socket. It does not mean, though, that his potential has gone unrealised on European nights. De Bruyne scored against Real Madrid in 2020 and 2022 and 2023; if Manchester City had faced them in 2021, he probably would have found the net then, too. De Bruyne’s goals are rationed these days, saved for the big occasions. Since the start of April, he has scored against Arsenal, Liverpool and Real. He has assisted against every other team he has faced, save for Sam Allardyce’s Leeds, and even that owed more to a remarkable miss from Erling Haaland than managerial brilliance. Should City’s season end in Istanbul, it will owe much to De Bruyne. But if not, he graced a great ground with a great goal. Under other circumstances, there would be grounds to say City are slight favourites, even in a tournament stripped of the away-goals rule. But not, perhaps, when the opponents are Real. They trailed for 178 minutes of last season’s semi-final against City and progressed. The equation has altered now, with the second leg at the Etihad Stadium this year, but Real are in a position of parity yet, arguably, a side with no equals. In their different ways, these two teams are peerless, testing their contrasting approaches to continental superiority. If City may be the best side in Europe, Real are the best at winning the European Cup. Perhaps it shows a flaw in Pep Guardiola’s thinking: Real have lifted the Champions League five times since he last did. But maybe it just highlights the uniqueness of Real: everyone else, after all, wants to be the serial winners of this trophy and, right now, no one else is. Guardiola has his explanations for City’s enduring inability to conquer Europe. He likes to argue that clubs with a tradition of lifting this trophy possess an inherent advantage, as though an institutional memory of Alfredo di Stefano prompts Karim Benzema to score or Vinicius Junior is transformed into a 21st-century Francisco Gento on a European stage. An alternative explanation is simply that each is an outstanding player: Benzema is the reigning Ballon d’Or winner, Vinicius perhaps the in-form superstar of 2023. Now he has supplanted even the Frenchman as Real’s major threat. Real have a formula of timelessness and explosiveness, with experience in the middle, pace on the flanks. They struck when Luka Modric released Eduardo Camavinga to fly into space on the left. Vinicius Junior unleashed a thunderbolt. If Kyle Walker was included because he might win a race against the Brazilian, even he can’t travel as fast as the winger’s cannonball of a shot. Yet the context made it more remarkable. Carlo Ancelotti borrowed from the Allardyce playbook and began on the defensive against City. Real sat back. They absorbed the pressure, but in an unflustered way. But Real play a game of patience better than anyone else. Ancelotti, a booking for dissent notwithstanding, is the most languid of managers and his team have adopted his persona. Meanwhile, City passed and passed – they had 72 percent of possession in the first 20 minutes – and then one deft flick from Modric made the difference. After the phoney war came a bullet from Vinicius. And then Real grew into game, took more of a turn on the ball, showed more ambition. Camavinga started to appear everywhere; left-backs are not supposed to be this ubiquitous but, like Vinicius, the Frenchman is a relative youngster who seems born for such nights. And then, just as Real seemed to be turning the screw, De Bruyne delivered. Haaland was finding David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger obdurate opponents. A series of duels were battles between compatriots. Vinicius’ shot flew past Ederson. Toni Kroos, the unlikely enforcer, chopped down Ilkay Gundogan. Thibaut Courtois made a terrific save from De Bruyne. But not a second. Had City struck from an intricate passing move, it might have seemed Guardiola had brought a Barcelona-esque ethos to the Bernabeu. But it was a moment of individual inspiration. Over the last decade, Real have had more than anyone else in this competition. But there was one apiece in Madrid. Vinicius aimed high, De Bruyne low. Each was a goal worthy of deciding a semi-final, but they can’t both win. Read More Perfect moments help Man City and Real Madrid set up thrilling encore Player ratings from Man City’s first-leg comeback against Real Madrid I know Pep Guardiola - and this is why Man City will win the Champions League Player ratings from Man City’s Champions League first-leg comeback at Real Madrid Perfect moments help Man City and Real Madrid set up thrilling encore Man City set for Premier League title boost with Kevin De Bruyne return

Real Madrid's best and worst players in draw with Man City.

Two perfect strikes, that would have been great enough to crown any European champions, but instead serve as the perfect set-up for the second leg. That was the overriding sense as Manchester City came back from 1-0 down to claim a 1-1 draw at Real Madrid. It was an absorbing game, elevated by two goals of the highest quality, but the feeling was it was just getting going as it ended. It is instead only halfway, for a match that could well decide almost everything this season - and certainly the competition that means more than anything else. Real Madrid can perhaps be slightly frustrated that they didn’t claim a killer second goal when City seemed there for the taking. It was uncharacteristic, and left them open to what they often do to everyone else in Europe, but not as uncharacteristic as how the game went for Pep Guardiola’s side. This was only the first time since April 1 that they were behind in a game. While it may not have been their best performance in that time, the fortitude shown might be just as important to finally winning this Champions League that the Abu Dhabi project so desires. It is the knowledge of such greater powers in the game which has so fired this version of Madrid, and defined their last half-decade, but that’s not quite the case with Carlo Ancelotti. He has his own ways, especially since he also has the record for most Champions League that Guardiola so desires. That did weigh over this match. As tends to happen in games on this stage, and especially when the main cast have now met so often, there are echoes of so many previous nights. Ancelotti had tried this exact approach against Guardiola before. It was on the way to his third Champions League, and Madrid’s 10th, as they sought to limit space for a technically superior Bayern Munich but only around their own box. Ancelotti was prepared to cede plenty of the pitch beyond, which again left a Guardiola team with so much possession, but only because it also allowed his fast players so much space to run into. Madrid won that match 1-0, getting the vital touch when Guardiola’s team had so many passes. Now, Ancelotti has even faster players, and more of them. It is one of the most striking elements of this iteration of Madrid. They have so many immensely promising players, who can eat up 80 yards of the pitch in no time. It means they can go from defending to devastating in seconds. Chief among them is Vinicius Jr, who by this point has long gone from “promising” to perhaps the most effective player in world football, perhaps the best. The goal was another great illustration of this, as well as a glorious combination of so many different qualities. There was first of all the divine and deft touch under pressure that was Luka Modric’s pass to Eduardo Camavinga. It was one of those moments that in the instant felt innocuous but actually did so much in one individual move. Modric both released the pressure and released Camavinga. The French international, here as a left-back but potentially one of the best midfielders in the world, just thundered up the pitch in the manner Madrid see as their future. The actual moment was something else. Vinicius let the ball run across him and, with one touch without breaking stride, almost broke the net with a strike that soared into the corner. Its impact was all the greater since it had come out of City’s best spell of the game for some time. So it was for the next goal, except this was the reverse. Kevin De Bruyne scored a ludicrously good goal out of Madrid’s best spell. It is another difference from that 2014 match, too. If Ancelotti now has more faster players, Guardiola has better ones, not least the Belgian. Before then, Madrid had actually sought to replicate their city rivals at Atletico Madrid last season by rattling Jack Grealish. Dani Carvajal shockingly barged him into the advertising hoardings, before Toni Kroos brutally cut him down in midfield. Madrid were really embracing this approach. It ensured they maybe got more of a hold of it than they expected. They were in full control in the 20 minutes before De Bruyne’s equaliser, and sensing the game was there to be killed. Unusually for Madrid, though, they couldn’t quite manage it. They instead felt the impact of what they frequently do to English sides. Out of nothing, De Bruyne produced a shot that had everything behind it. There was maybe a bit more to it than that since he and Rodri had repeatedly tried to catch Thibaut Courtois out from distance. This proved the logic. The game immediately became one governed by emotions, end to end, both sides probably content to take the draw but neither yet willing to accept it. That meant Federico Valverde destroying the City left side with one luscious turn, with Grealish then matching him through the middle - and the otherwise quiet Erling Haaland racing ahead dangerously - only for Antonio Rudiger to robustly block him and celebrate doing so. By that point, it felt like the tie was only getting going, and it could have done with a half-hour more. There will be at least 90 minutes to come on Wednesday, and it could decide the season. Read More I know Pep Guardiola - and this is why Man City will win the Champions League The six types of Pep Guardiola full-back, and what each says about Man City’s evolution Player ratings from Man City’s first-leg comeback against Real Madrid Player ratings from Man City’s Champions League first-leg comeback at Real Madrid Jay Rodriguez revels in ‘surreal’ promotion as Burnley celebrate title Laureus award winners and Crouch meets Lasso – Tuesday’s sporting social