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Why Man City are built to conquer Champions League’s behind closed doors format

Getty
Getty

Manchester City are the best behind-closed-doors team on the planet. They are close to being the best side in any conditions but the Champions League mini-tournament in Lisbon gives them an extra advantage.

Tonight against Lyon they can take a step closer to winning the trophy. Pep Guardiola’s men are in prime position to conquer the continent.

The absence of supporters in stadiums has an impact on all teams. Liverpool – who are still the reigning European champions – suffer more than most. Jurgen Klopp’s team relate to the crowd in a remarkable manner. They draw energy from the tumult and, in turn, spur the supporters on to greater excitement. It creates a loop of electricity that lifts the title winners to unexpected levels.

City are different. They play with a clinical, efficient brilliance that could have come straight from the training ground. Their spells of pressure are seldom punctuated by frustration. Even when the goals are slow in coming, they rarely need to switch to a plan B.

Part of Guardiola’s genius is that he has instilled the belief that if the team keep doing their thing, the reward is inevitable. Where doubt creeps in to the minds of other sides, City’s conviction is almost absolute.

The greatest example of the difference between the Premier League’s two best clubs came in July with City’s 4-0 rout of the champions at the Etihad.

Sure, Liverpool had just wrapped up the title and the players had been celebrating their achievement but Jurgen Klopp did not want to lose against his closest rivals. The visiting side started well and hit the post but once City scored the game ceased to be a contest.

It is hard to imagine Liverpool capitulating with 3,000 away fans in the ground. It is equally difficult to envisage a full house having any extra impact on Guardiola’s men.

The Etihad is hardly a cauldron.

City fans are as passionate as any club’s but the design and acoustics of the stadium mean it will never resonate like some of football’s cathedrals. Guardiola’s side at their peak play like they are oblivious to whether the ground is full or empty.

Pep Guardiola’s side can thrive without the emotion of supporters in the stadium (Pool)
Pep Guardiola’s side can thrive without the emotion of supporters in the stadium (Pool)

Atmosphere can have a negative effect on City. The Champions League quarter-final first leg at Anfield two years ago was a memorable example of this. City froze in a climate of unrelenting hostility.

Big European nights in the knockout rounds can generate this kind of atmosphere. Emotion funnelled from supporters to players can sometimes help bridge the gap between vigour and virtuosity. There will be no aid for City’s opponents in the echoing stands of Portugal.

The prevailing view of football in the coronavirus age is that the game is diminished by the absence of fans. That is largely true. The social aspect of the sport is frequently as attractive a component of match-going as the actual events on the pitch.

Yet to watch City perform without live spectators is still a joyful experience. There is a purity about their play that is compulsive.

They are the footballing equivalent of the singer or actor whose thousand-yard stare indicates that they have lost any sense that there is an audience watching. Artistry works on its own terms and City, at their best, need no other validation than the result.

Man City have their best chance yet of winning the Champions League (EPA)
Man City have their best chance yet of winning the Champions League (EPA)

The great Sir Bobby Robson used to tell a tale about Brian Clough after Ipswich Town’s 3-3 draw against Nottingham Forest at the City Ground in the quarter-final of the 1981 FA Cup.

When Robson approached the Forest legend to agree a date for the replay, an angry and ranting Clough proposed, first, going back onto the pitch and settling the game immediately and then a no-holds-barred, referee-less showdown on Skegness beach on Sunday morning.

It was all theatre but Clough, an expert in mind games, always had the sense that his team – who were European champions at the time – could win in any situation.*

Guardiola has even more reason to be convinced that he has produced a side to transcend any environment. City do not rely on emotions. They lift them, even in the antiseptic climate of Covidball. It will take a monumental effort to stop them winning the Champions League.

*Incidentally, Robson’s Ipswich won the replay 1-0. On a suitably sandy pitch at Portman Road.

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