Could this at last be the year? Since Sheikh Mansour took over Manchester City in 2008, the Champions League has been his target. Now, only Inter stands in City’s way in next month's final. City also beat Real Madrid in the semifinal two years ago but, convincing as that win was, it was nothing compared to this. The final score may have been 4–0 for a 5–1 aggregate, but the gulf between the sides was far greater even than that. City’s main opponent in June may be its own neuroses.
Pep Guardiola sides have thrown away extremely promising positions before, but none has ever dismissed a supposed rival quite so easily before in the Champions League, and none has ever gone into a final as quite so hot a favorite. After Madrid’s frequently inexplicable progress through the competition over the past couple of seasons, this felt like the moment something broke. The logic long deferred is in control. The real money is in charge now.
Perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise how one-sided this was. After all, last season’s semifinal was similarly unbalanced; it’s just that Madrid somehow got away with a 4–3 defeat at the Etihad and then played on City’s anxieties to score twice in injury time at the Bernabeu. But still City’s performance was extraordinary.
