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Pep Guardiola beat his compatriot Mendilibar, although not without a lucky smile: everything was decided in the penalty shootout.
If someone suddenly forgot, the current UEFA Super Cup was supposed to be held at the Kazan Arena stadium in the capital of Tatarstan, but in the end, for all known reasons, the game was transferred to the Greek Piraeus at Georgios Karaiskakis, It is the largest purely football stadium in the country. Thus, the Russian fans lost the opportunity to enjoy the match between Manchester City and Seville for the first international trophy of the new season.
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It is interesting that the clubs crossed paths in the group stage of the previous Champions League. And if Manchester City has shown enviable stability since then, many things have happened to Sevilla: in March, the club changed managers and, together with José Luis Mendilibar, won the Europa League, eliminating another Manchester team for the way, and then fell into trouble due to financial difficulties.
The Citizens played in the UEFA Super Cup for the first time, while the Sevillians appear here at home for the seventh time. They won their first such game, defeating Barcelona 3-0, and then suffered five straight losses. Interestingly, the winners of the main European Cup did not always win in this mini-tournament – 27 times in 47 matches.
If we talk about the starting lineups, the head coaches in the audience were not surprised by anything. They chose the same formations, 4-2-3-1, but the overall class of the English team is, of course, much higher.
The game started as expected: Manchester City took possession of the ball, and Sevilla pressed hard, trying to prevent the rival from building root attacks. When the legs were not so fresh (including the sweltering heat), the “village” strengthened their advantage on the field, but every time they approached the opponent’s goal something was missing: the last pass, the decisive blow, and perhaps a shining head of an injured Kevin De Bruyne.
Contrary to logic, the Spaniards scored the only goal in the first 45 minutes: a nondescript attack ended with a shot from the left flank into the center of the penalty area, where Youssef En-Neseri jumped higher. It is surprising that even after a powerful World Cup, the Moroccan striker, perhaps one of the best headers in the world, was never taken to a top club, continuing to be underestimated.
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At the start of the second half, the Sevillas had a 100 per cent chance of doubling their lead. But the author of the first ball became the anti-hero of the episode: after an elegant pass down the wing and a magnificent pass from Lucas Ocampos, En-Neseri could only pass the ball over the goalkeeper, but hit right at Ederson. The underdog eventually grew bolder, and he began to play almost on an equal footing with a formidable opponent.
And after that, the goal came again at a time when it did not follow the logic of the game. And again the ball was in the goal after a cross and a header: the ubiquitous Rodri, who became almost Guardiola’s most important player, found Cole Palmer with a shot into the penalty area. After that, the “townspeople” cheered up and moved on. In the remaining time, Sevilla basically did nothing but counterattack.
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As a result, it came to a penalty shootout. More recently, the “citizens” lost it to Arsenal in the English Super Cup, and the Sevillians have just won the Europa League with blows “from the penalty spot.” And their goalkeeper Bono, in addition to that success, also won a series against Spain in the World Cup. However, the players confidently separated the goalkeepers and the ball from different angles until Kyle Walker’s shot nearly carried Bono away. And just behind him, Nemanja Gudel hit the crossbar. This is where it all ended.
Based on the results of the match, we can safely say that Manchester City is nothing impressive so far. Either because of the lack of motivation after the treble, or because De Bruyne means so much to the “citizens”, or because the team is in a banally mediocre form and will continue to play throughout the season. In any case, first of all, the answer to this must be found in Guardiola. But Sevilla left a very pleasant impression, although they were left without a trophy. Against the background of a difficult and somewhat pessimistic preseason, it was hard to expect anything good from the Spaniards, but they showed a more than decent game against the best team in the world.
