2023-08-18 00:00:38
It is true that Manchester City added (Wednesday) another title to the impressive treble that it achieved last season, but Spanish coach Josep Guardiola’s team was not at all in the usual appearance, with large gaps emerging as a result of the modifications that occurred in the squad. City emerged victorious (Wednesday) in Greece from the Super Cup match, by defeating Sevilla, the Spanish champions of the “Europa League”, with a penalty shootout after the end of normal time, with a 1-1 draw.
Seville started its domestic season last week, losing at home to Valencia 1-2, after finishing the league last season in twelfth place.
However, the Andalusian club could have prevented City from winning the title in its first participation in this match, if Moroccan Youssef Al-Nusairi had taken advantage of the opportunities that were available to him, especially when he singled out Brazilian goalkeeper Ederson twice. Al-Nusairi himself scored the first goal in the match with a wonderful header during the first half of the match, before City equalized in the second thanks to the header of young Cole Palmer. City seemed completely affected by his lack of magic by Belgian midfielders Kevin De Bruyne and Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva, who missed the match due to the first injury and the second illness.
City will have to adapt to the idea of De Bruyne’s absence, who will be out of action for up to four months due to a hamstring injury he suffered during the 3-0 win over Burnley in the first stage of the Premier League. What makes the position of the Champions League champions and their coach Guardiola more difficult is that they lost the efforts of German midfielder Ilkay Gundogan and Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez to move to Barcelona and Al-Ahly of Saudi Arabia, respectively. Mahrez’s departure to Saudi Arabia opened the door for the young Palmer to leave his mark with the first team.
The England under-21 striker won the best player award on Wednesday, thanks to his equalizer with a beautiful header, after a wonderful cross from Spaniard Rodri, the champion of crowning the Champions League title for the first time in the club’s history, after scoring the only final goal against Inter, Italy. But even Guardiola himself is not convinced Palmer will be in the squad between now and the close of the summer transfer window on September 1. Palmer’s name was linked to a possible transfer to West Ham as part of the contract deal with Brazilian Lucas Paqueta, who is expected to join City.
Despite the very high heat in the Greek capital, Guardiola made only one substitution in the match (Wednesday), when he inserted Argentine Julian Alvarez late, instead of Palmer himself. In addition to the task of defending their titles in the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, City will have to struggle to compete in the English League Cup as well as trying to win the Club World Cup at the first attempt for the club. Guardiola lamented that his team did not have enough time to prepare for the new season, highlighting the many injuries suffered by players in Europe as a whole, although the season is still in its infancy. Guardiola said before the Super Cup match: “Look at all the cruciate ligament injuries that occurred in all the major tournaments at the beginning of the season. The players do not rest physically or mentally. He continued, “They force them to travel to Asia or America (in pre-season tours) for club purposes and they play really difficult matches on bad pitches and the players get injured, or they will get injured, because they haven’t got these 25 days (which they need) to prepare.” ».
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