Fresh-faced as he is, Alvaro Arbeloa felt old. Earlier in the week, he had mentioned Groundhog Day to his Real Madrid players. None had seen the film. Raul Asencio pointed out that it came out a decade before he was born.
Come Wednesday evening, Pep Guardiola had rather greater problems with Groundhog Day. He seemed stuck in it. Real, who had knocked his Bayern team out of the Champions League in 2014 and his City in 2022, 2024 and 2025, are on the brink of doing it again in 2026. No one else has eliminated City from Europe since Chelsea in the 2021 final, and, for another year, probably no one else will need to.
