Souness: “City will be crowned champions of Europe”
Liverpool legend Graeme Souness gave his reasons why he sees Guardiola’s team lifting the trophy in his Daily Mail column.
Legendary Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness knows how difficult it is to win the Champions League and what it feels like to lift the trophy. He captained the Reds in the 1984 final in Rome, leading the club to their fourth European crown and his third (1978, 1981 and 1984). Souness, who called time on his playing career in 1986, has been working as a pundit for past 17 years - since his last managerial post, at Newcastle in 2006.
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In his column for the Daily Mail, he analyzed the final stretch of this Champions League. Title holders Real Madrid played out a 1-1 with Manchester City at the Bernabéu, but the Scotsman believes that Guardiola’s men will be crowned European champions for the first time in their century-old history.
Unstoppable Haaland
He bases his argument on how difficult it will be to stop Haaland and City in general for 180 minutes for Real Madrid - adding that the Premier League side would start out as favourites against either of the potential finalists Inter or Milan, whom he considers “ordinary teams”.
“It’s always a treacherous business predicting who will win any competition because you never know what Lady Luck has in store when it comes to knockout football. But I make no bones about this one. I really think it’s Manchester City’s time in the Champions League. In part, that’s because we can discount the Italian sides who competed in Wednesday’s second semi-final. I have to say I was shocked to see two such ordinary sides competing on a stage like that. When I played in Italy, you had the very best players in the world out there. They were playing in their prime. It grieved me to see how it seems to have become a staging post for players who can no longer crack it at the big leagues: Oliver Giroud at 36, Henrikh Mkhitaryan at 34, Edin Dzeko at 37. AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was injured, is 41. Both of those Milanese sides would be mid-table or even lower in the Premier League. Only Inter’s Lautaro Martinez would come anywhere near the top end of our football,” Souness wrote.
But the Scot says that while he has a gut feeling that this is City’s year, you can never rule Real Madrid out. “With Real Madrid, we saw a willingness to put on a different business head to the one they wear week-in, week-out in Spain, where they dominate possession. Madrid accepted they would be out of possession and every one of them put in a shift, even the most attack-minded players like Vinicius and Karim Benzema. They gradually came into the game in the second half when City got their goal,” he continued.
But Ancelotti’s team, who did a good job of containing Haaland in the first leg, will find that much tougher at the Etihad. “Madrid have great talents of their own: the vastly experienced players like Benzema, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, of course, and the attack-minded Dani Carvajal. Antonio Rüdiger wanted to bully Erling Haaland in the Bernabéu, make it physical and prevent him scoring. But I’m not sure you can shut Haaland out over 180 minutes. Keep Haaland quiet and another problem will pop up: Bernardo Silva or Kevin De Bruyne,” he argued.
Vinicius and De Bruyne were the scorers in the first leg, leaving the tie poised at 1-1. One of the two will advance to the final after the semi-final is decided in Manchester on Tuesday night. City remain unbeaten all season at their stadium, while Real Madrid have won all of their games in this edition of the tournament apart from two - they were held 1-1 by Shakhtar on Matchday 4 and lost 3-2 to Leipzig on Matchday 5 of the group stage - both away from home.
Praise for Rodrigo
Rodrigo Hernández is one player who has impressed Souness this season. He sang the praises of the midfielder, as he concluded, “Rodri is emerging as the best holding midfield player in Europe. I would like to see more goals from him than his 16 he’s scored across the past four years. His goal against Bayern Munich was his first in the Champions League. But he’s big, powerful and rarely gives the ball away. He has that clever pass, can go long or short and senses danger before it happens because he, too, is thinking worst case scenario all the time. He can take the ball in tight areas and rarely gives it away. For a player so big and powerful to have such a silky touch is unusual”.