Manchester City’s season took a blow with defeat to Liverpool in the Champions League on Tuesday. Combined with the second-half collapse to rival Manchester United last weekend, things were about as dismal as they could be for a team with a 13-point lead in the Premier League. But a 3-1 win for Manchester City vs Tottenham on Saturday at Wembley Stadium showed Pep Guardiola’s side is still the best in England.
So it’s Real Madrid vs. Bayern Munich and Liverpool vs. AS Roma in the Champions League draw for the semifinals on Friday. What immediately jump out are all the storylines and relationships between the two sets of semifinalists. But there’s more to this matchup than player links.
Sure, Bayern’s James Rodriguez is on loan from Real Madrid and Toni Kroos once plied his trade for the Bavarians. And yes, Salah transferred to Liverpool from Roma last summer.
Liverpool and AS Roma have made this the most exciting Champions League in recent years (at least as far as the semifinals are concerned). Here's why a Liverpool versus AS Roma UCL final would be the best thing that could possibly happen to us.
There's a good reason powerhouses Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Juventus always feature in the most definitive rounds of Europe's most important competition, and yet, even though these teams never cease to amaze us, there's something refreshing and exciting about teams like Liverpool and Roma making it so far.
DO NOT SHARE WITH ANYONE OUTSIDE THE MANCHESTER CITY COACHING STAFF AND PLAYERS, THANK YOU.
-Pep
Pinky in the air
Switch to a 4-4-2.
Making a "W" with arms on top of head
Switch to a 4-2-2-2 Brazilian box.
The "Hook 'Em" sign
Switch to a 4-2-3-1.
Hands spreading apart
Play closer to each other (this is trickery).
Hands gone closer together
Spread out (this is also trickery).
Hand to ear like a telephone
Manchester City thought it had scored a second goal late in the first half against Liverpool, a goal that would have put the Citizens up 2-0 and two thirds of the way to erasing the 3-0 defeat from the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal. But the referees thought otherwise and the disallowed Manchester City goal was a defining moment of the first half.