If Manchester City have realistic hopes of winning the Champions League they need to learn how to play in two-legged cup ties - and quickly. Manchester United were second best for 180 minutes of their Carabao Cup semi-final but were somehow still alive until the final whistle.
Real Madrid, City’s opponents in Europe next month, won’t be nearly as bad and won’t be nearly as generous if the Premier League champions show a lack of killer instinct. The Spanish giants know exactly how to get the job, going back 64 years and 13 occasions of success.
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City, as shown in their last three exits to Monaco, Liverpool and Tottenham are still novices. And it was underlined again in their 1-0 defeat to United on Wednesday - even if they secured another chance of silverware.
Quite how the all-Manchester semi-final wasn’t settled after a first leg dominated by City was baffling. How it became a nerve-jangling affair at the Etihad Stadium was almost as ridiculous.
“I can’t really comprehend how we lost this game,” Kevin de Bruyne told Sky Sports afterwards. “We were way too wasteful today, we have to learn from this.
“We got sloppy. The goal, we don’t clear the lines really good and out of nothing they scored. We need to learn from the mistakes.”
Pep Guardiola was irate that his side had left United off the hook at Old Trafford after tearing them apart in the first 45 minutes and taking a three-goal advantage. Particularly when a Marcus Rashford consolation meant that United travelled to the other side of the city looking for the same sort of miracle that saw them knock out Paris-St Germain in similarly unlikely circumstances almost exactly 12 months ago.
But City are short of some of their killer instinct that destroyed Premier League opposition on a weekly basis in two record-breaking title seasons. The way they leak goals has added a fear factor to the team that wasn’t there previously.
With senior centre-backs Aymeric Laporte and Fernandinho missing, Guardiola decided, as so often he does, that attack was the best form of defence. It worked pretty well apart from the fact that they lacked the deadly final touch to finally to kill off their rivals once and for all.
Both sides had square pegs in round holes - Joao Cancelo and Kyle Walker for City and Luke Shaw for United deployed as emergency centre-backs. But City’s square pegs were a much snugger fit as they dominated again.
Aguero played on Shaw at every opportunity, losing the defender for a header that was clawed away by David De Gea and dribbling away from him for another effort that the Spaniard tipped over the bar.
In the opening 35 minutes, City had nine attempts on goal but only three on target, with two thirds of possession. United's pacy attacking trio of Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial were rubbernecking from the halfway line. But that changed in an instant.
Fred’s poor free-kick was poorly dealt with by Bernardo Silva and Nemanja Matic smashed in United’s first attempt on target in off the far post. It felt like yet more bad luck on the much-maligned Claudio Bravo, who has an unhappy knack of conceding from the first shot on target every time he plays.
The Chilean had no chance with the well-taken lash but he doesn’t seem to inspire confidence in his defence - particular a makeshift one. And those nerves transmitted them throughout the side.
Raheem Sterling and Kyle Walker were failing to control simple passes, Rodri and Cancelo were unable to play simple ones. Sterling who has become the marksman in front of goal that critics thought he would become, returned to his old bad days when he raced clear of the United defence early in the second half. He spurned the chance to shoot, taking it around De Gea and then fired over the bar off-balance.
Substitute David Silva was more culpable when United gifted him the ball 10 yards out and he declined the chance to shoot with only De Gea to beat. Matic's red card ultimately took the wind out of United's sails and they could not mount that frantic last few minutes their manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was no doubt planning.
“It was a great test for the Real Madrid games,” Ilkay Gundogan told Sky Sports. “The manager said before the game, this is an experience we have to survive and overcome. “It’s a learning process. We will try to make it better.
City, ultimately, deserved to reach the Carabao Cup final in February - their third in succession. But Real may well show the that being the better team is not always enough.
