Special night if City 'do' one & Ron
By Dave Walker
Manchester City will be hoping Jose
Mourinho’s pre-match prediction comes true and Ronaldo chalks up a hat-trick
with a difference in City’s do-or-die Champions League clash with Real Madrid.
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| Ronaldo returns to Manchester tomorrow night Photo: Denis Doyle/Getty Images Europe |
Even the most rabid, sky blue tinted
spectacle wearing City fanatic would be hard pressed to believe their beloved
team can wriggle Houdini-like out of their Champions League straight jacket and concrete
boots.
With a paltry two points garnered from away
trips to Madrid and Amsterdam and home ties with the Dutch champions and
Borussia Dortmund, it will take one of the biggest and most unlikely
turnarounds in European history for City to grace the knockout stages.
It doesn't however, stop Roberto Mancini’s
men going out in a blaze of glory and inflicting serious damage on Madrid’s aspirations for a record 10th Euro crown.
The self proclaimed ‘Special One’ has
already admitted his astonishment at City’s Group D predicament. He might even
be sincere when he says he believes City are well capable of overhauling his
team at the Etihad Stadium.
Apparently desperate to return to the
English game’s elite, one could be forgiven for believing Jose’s comments are a
barb at Mancini and a not so subtle promotion of his, admittedly, impeccable
credentials, should Sheikh Mansour seek to dispense with the popular Italian.
The fact City now have an ex-Barcelona
executive hierarchy of Ferran Soriano and Txiki Begiristain makes a Mourinho to
City move even more remote, but nonetheless, a well crafted home win would
enable Mancini to put one over on his nemesis. It was Mourinho remember, who
delighted in mocking Mancini’s inability to guide Inter Milan to Champions League success after
succeeding him at the San Siro.
And then there’s the return of ‘The Special
Ron’ – good old pretty boy himself – loathed by City fans but undeniably a
supreme football talent. A veritable goal machine and the La Liga player of the
year, the City faithful would love to see Fergie’s favourite son make it a
hat-trick…of Etihad dismissals.
Sent off in January 2006 for a foul on
another ex-Red, Andy Cole and then shown a red card in November 2008 for a
petulant handball offence after earlier fouling Shaun Wright Phillips, no Blues
would shed a tear were he to head for an early shower.
Football purists would argue it would ruin
the game to have the world’s second best player sent off - 46,000 City fans
would beg to differ.
City’s campaign could well avoid the
last rites with a vital win ad allow them to nurture the faintest of hopes when
visiting Dortmund in December.
As they rose to the top of the Premier League for
the first time last Saturday, one gets the feeling that this is a team primed
for lift-off after a mixed, but ultimately successful, first three months of
the season.
Mancini proclaims that his dozy defenders
have risen from slumber with heightened powers of concentration at set plays
and no longer susceptible to conceding sloppy goals.
At the other end of the field City have Sergio Aguero and Carlos Tevez making all the right noises, and more
importantly, starting to bang in the goals. Ex-Athletico Madrid marksman Aguero
has never been on the winning side against the men from the Bernabeu – he’d
like to start now.
Tevez, in a remarkable portrayal of contentment,
has called for patience and understanding, putting City’s two Champions League attempts into
context against the extended periods it took both Manchester United and Chelsea
to succeed.
With Micah Richards as the only likely
casualty, Mancini has a clean bill of health among his squad and will feel his
City side can edge Madrid.
Kompany and Nastasic are growing in stature
as a partnership but both they and whoever gets the full back berths, Maicon,
Zabaleta, Clichy or Kolarov, will need to work their proverbials off to suppress
returning Red Ronnie. It can be done.
Silva and Yaya can work the middle of the
park to outmuscle and outpass Alonso, Ozil, Modric or whoever Jose selects, and
of course the boys from Argentina can wreak havoc among Madrid’s suspect
backline, led by the Portuguese Pepe.
At this stage it isn’t about pride. It’s
about professionalism and belief. Make no mistake City can win this game, it’s
just a case of ordering ‘two Specials to go’ – all the way into Champions League oblivion.
You can also follow Dave on Twitter: @djwskyblu
(c) The Sky Blue View 2012
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