On May 9 Erling Håland will play at the Bernabéu... as a visitor. It will be a Champions League semifinal. Others. The tenths for Pep Guardiola. City and Madrid, then, will repeat last season's duel after the English got rid of Bayern (1-1). In 2022, Ancelotti's men went to the final. Of course, City then did not have Haaland, author of 12 goals in this edition and 48 in his first year in England. An important difference. His was the citizen's goal in Munich that made the Bavarian comeback impossible (3-0 in the first leg). The Norwegian Terminator is unforgiving. The whites are warned, that they will not be able to count on Militão, who was suspended, for that first game.
Guardiola was well aware that Bayern had not thrown in the towel. For this reason, he took advantage of the fact that the French referee Turpin's intercom did not work and he could not whistle the start of the game to continue giving instructions. The City coach saw how the rivals were positioning themselves on the field and wanted to put the finishing touches on it. That is also elite football: an obsession with controlling even the smallest detail. He called Akanji and Bernardo Silva into the band. They were four minutes late and new indications. Something similar happened when Ederson asked permission to stop the game because he needed to tie his boot. Any time is good for Pep to adjust.
On the other side, Tuchel was a whirlwind of emotions. He lived the game on the surface. He was screaming, protesting, gesturing and putting pressure on the referee. He wanted to transmit that extra momentum to his team, because he needed his Bayern to further ignite the atmosphere at the Allianz Arena. Him to the point of ending up expelled. Normal.
Both sets were a true reflection of the attitudes of their coaches. City played in a cerebral, restrained and very intelligent way, trying to control the ball. Bayern came out electric, with vertigo in their veins and possessed.
With the ball, the Bavarians were clear that they had to look for Coman and Sané on the wings. The two wingers are two players of magnificent quality and speed. But they lack aim. Especially since Choupo-Moting is far from being a striker who makes a difference like Lewandowski was. The Frenchman almost always left Aké but his centers could not find a finisher. For his part, Sané was denied before Ederson. The City goalkeeper has already taken several shots in the first leg. After fifteen minutes, the German appeared in the race before the Brazilian goalkeeper, whose morale is eating him, as the shot went too far across. Then he couldn't get past him either.
Bayern generated danger but did not finish, too soft in the opposite area, but they could not get confused in defense with Haaland in front. In the two games, leaving Upamecano many times side by side with City's number 9 seemed crazy. He was about to get the expulsion. What Turpin did see right away were the defender's hands when he wanted to cover a Gundogan shot with his body. The occasion was perfect for Håland, who had scored all seven penalties he had taken for City. The eighth went high with so much power that he printed it.
But the Norwegian is not one of those who leaves pending accounts. The mistake seemed to weigh on him at the beginning of the second half when he erred on being selfish and kicking first against Sommer when he had time to stop the ball and even assist De Bruyne who came on alone.
It is very strange that Haaland forgives two clear occasions. Instead, Coman is not even half as effective. He showed it by sneaking into the City area but the ball went over the goal line. Ten seconds later the ball was in Sommer's net.
Stones took the ball out, Haaland brought it down, De Bruyne thought about the counterattack and returned it to the Norwegian, who faced Upamecano, whose legs trembled again. A fatal slip that left a highway for the beast, which shot Sommer and the few hopes Bayern had left (57). It was the first goal that the Bavarians conceded at home in this Champions League. Instead they could only beat Ederson with a penalty from Kimmich (83). Bayern wanted to but could not with the brute Haaland.
Bayern: Sommer; Pavard (Stasinic 77), Upamecano, De Ligt, Cancelo (Davies 63); Kimmich, Goretzka; Sané (Mané 63), Musiala (Müller 71), Coman y Choupo-Moting (Tel 71).
Manchester City: Ederson; Akanji, Stones, Ruben Dias, Aké (Laporte 66); Rodrigo, De Bruyne (Walker 88), Gundogan; Bernardo Silva, Haaland (Álvarez 84) and Grealish.
Goals: 0-1, m.57: Haaland. 1-1, m.83: Kimmich, the penalty.
Referee: Clement Turping (France). He admonished Cancelo (11), Upamecano (35), Kimmich (47), Pavard (60) and Stanisic (88), by Bayern; and Ederson (44), Gündogan (47), Ake (54) and Laporte (86), by Manchester City. He sent off Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel (17 and 87) for a double warning.
Incidents: second leg of the Champions League quarterfinals played at the Allianz Arena in Munich.
