Pep never changes. Real Madrid-Manchester Cityfirst leg semi-final of Champions League. Players introduced off the bench for England: none. Once again Guardiola takes the counterattack of world football, which goes in the opposite direction. For many, the transition from three to five substitutions, which became a reality in 2020, was Covid, is no longer enough to allow teams to deal with the possible absences of positive players and face the calendar made compressed by the months of lockdown. They want six or seven, to have more fresh players on the pitch and improve the show. Guardiola obviously doesn’t think so. And he repeats himself: he had already done it in the Champions League, on 22 February, in the first leg of the round of 16, drawn 1-1 at Leipzig. “The five substitutions – he said then – are an opportunity, not an obligation. I analyzed Leipzig and I am convinced that the match should be played like this, with these men”.
Pep Guardiola and the phenomenal bench of Manchester City
It is a precise choice, it is obviously not a question of lack of spare parts. At the Santiago Bernabeu on the bench, the Catalan coach had beside him, among others, Julian Alvarez, starting center forward for Argentina in the world final won in Qatar in December against France; the Algerian Riyad Mahrez, absolute protagonist of the Premier League conquered by Ranieri’s Leicester in 2016 and then African champion in 2019; And Phil Foden22 years old, twelve million euros net annual salary, according to the CIES (International Center for Sports Studies) the second most expensive player on the planet behind Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund: 200 million would be needed to wrest him from City. In short, we are very far from thatItalia-Albania of March 2017, qualifiers a Russia 2018in which the coach Gian Piero Ventura he left the same eleven men on the field for ninety minutes plus recovery. The Azzurri won 2-0 but the squad was what it was and, as we all know, Italy was a sad spectator at that World Cup.
Haaland’s father makes an umbrella gesture to Real fans and is ejected from the VIP box
When Allegri said: “With the five changes I hope I don’t mess up”
No, Guardiola doesn’t change because he is absolutely convinced that he has made the best choices before the match, which cannot make him change his mind. “Enormous presumption”, say his detractors, allergic to Guardiole’s creed professed by millions of football fans. “Total trust in his team and great athletic preparation”, respond the followers, because allowing himself a similar decision on May 9, at the end of the season, in such an important 90 minutes, is not for everyone, indeed it is only for him. Everything is clear in his head, what happens on the pitch is just a confirmation of the theory. Far away the words of Massimiliano Allegri when he returned to the Juventus in July 2021, after two seasons without coaching. For him, the five substitutions were an absolute novelty: “I just hope I don’t mess up”; he said laughing.
