City scandal: Why was Pep at PSG game? | Football Weekly

Guardian Football

City scandal: Why was Pep at PSG game? Football Weekly

This episode starts with Manchester City's 2-4 Champions League defeat to PSG, discussing PSG's strength, squad depth and rotation, and the controversy over Pep Guardiola attending the game. The conclusion is that PSG are the team to beat in Europe, while Guardiola's presence is seen as a public show of support for City and a rejection of the verdict.

Pep Guardiola sat in the stands in Paris as his former side were humbled by PSG, but what was it he was watching exactly? Max Rushden is joined by Nicky Bandini, Nick Ames and Barry Glendenning to break it all down. Watch the full podcast episode ► https://youtu.be/jwhlUo488VI Subscribe to Guardian Football ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardianfootball?subconfirmation=1 We want your feedback! If you had any thoughts on our coverage of the World Cup, please let us know here ► www.theguardian.com/YTWorldCupSurvey The Guardian publishes independent journalism, made possible by supporters. Contribute to The Guardian today ► https://support.theguardian.com/ Guardian Football Weekly: https://www.tiktok.com/@guardianfootballweekly https://www.instagram.com/guardianfootballweekly/ Website ► https://www.theguardian.com Facebook ► https://www.facebook.com/theguardian Bluesky ► https://bsky.app/profile/sport.theguardian.com Instagram ► https://www.instagram.com/guardiansport/ The Guardian on YouTube: The Guardian ► https://www.youtube.com/@theguardian Football Weekly podcast ► https://www.youtube.com/@footballweeklypodcast Guardian News ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiannews Guardian Australia ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardianaustralia Guardian Sport ► https://www.youtube.com/@guardiansport

Transcript

Let's begin then at the Etiad. Manchester City 2 PSG4. Michael says, "How are we supposed to enjoy normal football after City PSG? If it's normal football, is it normal football in their Champions League because the charges aren't against City in the Champions League anyway." Anyway, it was Nikki a brilliant game of football. So, let's be pleased about that. I feel like PSG have come to occupy this very odd space now in the British football psyche because even though I'm an Arsenal fan, I'm fairly confident there were a lot of Arsenal, non Arsenal fans cheering for them to beat Arsenal in the Champions League final last year. And then last night, I think there was probably a lot of English football fans cheering for them to beat Manchester City. So this um beautiful >> the good guys are the good guys of football everything we want the Qatar and um uh football club um PSG is is everything that everyone wants to cheer for. It was it was a great game of football though. I mean that's um as you say it's really hard to know where to put these games with Man City at the moment waiting for a judgment um in well the judgments come down waiting for a punishment to be uh made and and waiting for the appeals to go through but purely looking at at the game itself. Um PSG played some astonishing stuff in that first 30 minutes of in Desiree do just absolutely came to not to play frankly but to destroy. I mean not in like a destroying the game but just wiping City off the pitch in that first half hour. The first goal was so absolutely brilliantly taken. I thought the second goal was maybe even better um for the construction and the assist. Um and then the city woke up. It's hard to know exactly whether that waking up is just kind of because PSG were already three-0il up and I knew the game was in hand, but PSG were were really really good. Um, and I think given they'd had this slightly not overwhelming start in in League One this season, it was an eye opening reminder of yes, these are the two-time reigning champions and they're going to be very hard to to dislodge. >> Yeah. Um I mean Vatinia's goal the little back heel and then hitting the microphone slightly sort of Ian Rush hitting the camera in the grandstand credits sort of just you heard this extra um it was so good wasn't it and it's interesting B I hadn't really focused on how PSG rest their players so much in Liga like Dembele only played 12 league games last season so like they they have this plan of just which normally means they aren't as good this early in the season but they have this plan to just sort of rev it up and just be going by March. So, if they're this good now, you know, Barcelona have competition in this competition. >> Absolutely. Uh PSG will take some beating. Yeah, that's been a thing under Lewis Enrique. Star players are their league on minutes are extremely limited. And then uh like remember the first time PSG won this Champions League, they almost didn't get out of the group stage into the knockout stages. They only sort of made it by the skin of their teeth. And they haven't got off to a particularly good start in League this season, but that won't bother them because they have such brilliant players and so much strength and depth that it's the odds are very much stacked in their favor. even if they do leave out their big players from time to time. I mean, it's not that much of an advantage to them this early in the season, but it will increasingly become an advantage as we get towards Christmas and beyond. Um, I mean, the three goals they scored before halftime were just sensational. I torn between the first and second. Uh, like the first goal, they were penned in down in their own corner, you know. uh deep deep in their own half in the corner. Managed to work their way through City as if they were just children or training cones. Uh incredible passing move up the pitch and a brilliant finish from Dway because I'd imagine Donna Roma was expecting him to try and curl it inside the far post, but no, he pulled it inside the near one. Much more difficult, I'd say, to execute than it looked. And then the second one when um Dembele and Dway played this sort of aerial one two >> from either side of the penalty area and Dembele scored with a header. Again, a sensational goal. In the end, City did get back into it and they missed five or six good chances. They had one cleared off the line. They hit the woodwork. But I do think PSG had very much taken their foot off the gas after a first half in which they were absolutely rampant and totally dominant. Yeah, Badi came on for Turkey and and D came on for Dou and look, City have good players and you can take off good players and bring on good players, Nick, and they they were more impressive and it is as bad as it's hard to say, did PSG take their foot off the gas a bit because if you're a City fan, you know, while you're not, you know, being defiant and you're watching this in a footballing terms, you can be like, you can take some positives from how they turned it around a bit. >> Yeah. And you could you could feel that the crowd were quite shrill and rockous and really getting behind their attempt to come back in in that second half, couldn't you? The the atmosphere was several notches higher than what you often get at Vieta had. Maybe maybe this whole whole sorry tale is making the City fans feel something which which it maybe has been hard to do in some of those years since um Aguero and um you know the team in the second half put on a good show for the manager and also for Enzo Mlesca because um Pep Guardiola was of course watch um watching from um from Videal said that he he he wanted to part of the day. Um, which was good of him. So, he he turned up um only two months into the season and watched it from the side, which was a I mean, it's a when you step back, what a strange move that was. I mean, you'll see why I'm making the comparison. I I was I was with a couple of weeks ago Kira McKenna, the V86 rich manager who much like Guardiola had a a you know a lot of success and then left on his own terms and chose to um still lives a mile or two from from from the ground and I said are you going to go back soon? Do you want to go go and watch a game because his family all go? Um and he said no I I the moment will come but I've got to let them get on with it. um you know somewhere down the line I' I'd love to go back but I'm not going to do that anytime soon. And then you've got Guardiola showing up two months into the season and it's it's it's very much isn't it a a doubling down a um a okay we we're all in this. We have absolutely no no belief in in the the verdict that has been handed down and anything that might follow. This is us. this is our achievement. We we don't care whether it's discredited or whether you want to discredit it. This is where we are. He's he's he's he's hitched himself to the mast. I I found it quite astonishing, especially given this was was a guy who I think said that if you've been found to be lying to him, you were not his friend. one of those sweatshirts saying pending appeal and you know you know one of those classic Man City ones of slightly trendy but slightly I'm not sure for the the touch line. It's extraordinary in in like two directions, isn't it? Cuz one thing is about what he's trying to communicate about the verdict and what he feels about it, but like under any other circumstance, I think Nick was just hinting at there with the McKenna comparison is like that's a shadow over Mesa that Mesa doesn't need. Like Mesa doesn't need to be reminded of, oh, here's the manager who won everything. Here's the guy who was, you know, more loved than you. I mean, better than you is not vex. Mesa's just started, but it's very hard for Mesa to to to to replicate. Taking aside all of the the the the implications of of how those trophies were won, that's still how City fans are going to feel about him. It's how the clubs are going to feel about him, that this is the guy who who did it all. And and um and now you're in his shadows. So, it's it's very odd. um to to to spin it back to to the football just um for a second. I do think one of the the the the sub stories I guess of this game is um really the the truth of all top level European competition. Now the clubs that can hang late into these competitions that will do it on a consistent basis are the ones with depth. That's that's what it's all about. And we were talking about PSG keeping um their minutes down for key players. Rory Smith on match the day mentioned in the Champions League final last year. Dembele was on about 2,000 minutes where Arsenal players were on like 4,000. So like um huge difference in in number of minutes played. the the thing that um both of these teams have is that extraordinary depth and you saw it with City bringing on um in the second half Buadi and um and Jay who really had a great second half and Jay when he came on and and moved things around but then you remember on the other side the Desire Dway having this amazing um impact in the first half really the the the star man for me he was starting on the left of attack where normally it's Kitchikarellia so like the options there are absurd like the options you've got in that PSG lineup are are crazy and that's to me away. Um, as good as Barcelona are and they look really good, I think PSG are the team to beat until until someone proves otherwise. >> I thought Batti as well as Enjoy was was brilliant when he came on. He he um really lit things up for City and I I suspect he will tear it up in the Northern Counties League next season. One to watch. >> Can I ask you Nikki about um Donna Rumor? I think we've had this conversation before about whether he's done or whether he can't dive one way. I can't remember if it was the way that Dway struck it, you know, to his right or that sort of really bizarre goal where he, you know, he met his he got such a big palm to it that there are City fans behind the goal applauding the save as it's bouncing into the goal. Um, but he is a weird mix of brilliant and terrible. >> Yeah. The thing with Don I always come back to talking living in people's shadows. Unfortunately for him, he I think partly just because of his first name, Forever lives a little bit in the shadow of Gigi Buffon, also just because any Italian goalkeeper for a while is going to live in Buffon's shadow. And I remember Buffon saying to me once, because I've had a chance to dam a few times, including for the Guardian, but he said to me once that the real mark of a of a great keeper is just making really really few mistakes. And that's the problem with Donma. Donnuma can be the best keeper in the world sometimes, I think. Like he he really like makes these extraordinary stops. He wins games. He's obviously been recognized for that with various awards including when Italy won the Euros player of the tournament. I'm doubting myself now because it's five years ago, but he was certainly one of the the players acknowledged on that. Um and uh and then he has moments that are really like make you want to tear your hair out and the these gaffs. I don't know on the first goal. I think the first goal I'm more inclined to to give Dway that bit of credit for saying like exactly as you said before. I think everyone expects you to go across goal there and he just hits it so well into the near corner. Um but yeah, the the the mistakes more generally it's it's part of what you get with him. >> It was a brilliant image from this game. I think it was just after PSG had um gone 3-0 up and that you could see the camera was pointed at Donna Roma's back and he was gazing for Laurenly into the away end where all the PSG fans had their shirts off and were doing the Pausnan. That was very jiffable. >> Um or gifable. I mean it depends. Were you trying to wash I can never remember. Are you trying to wash it clean or are you are you >> I can never remember whether it's GIF or GIF. >> Well, I'm going GIF, but you know, >> well, I Well, we believe it's GIF. You say GIF. You say GIF, we say GIF. Who cares? Um, we're all we're all too middle-aged for this is uh what I would say. I think producer Joel says, I think Barry is technically correct. Well, you know, um >> it's a matter of opinion. It's a matter of opinion. the football weekly@theguardian.com. Please