Guardiola in desperate need of early goal to create modern

WITHIN the Manchester City squad, the angry frustration from the last week has built to a colder and focused “fury”. They know they need to make a point, and to make a statement . . . in order to make history.

That’s how massive the task for this Champions League quarterfinal second leg against Liverpool has become – “a mountain” as Pep Guardiola described it – that’s what it comes down to.

Only five sides in the competition’s 63-year history have overturned a first-leg deficit of at least three goals to go through. And if there is little precedent to take solace from in the tournament’s past, there is even less from City’s past.

This is something that has been touched on a lot around a tie with a club as gloriously successful in the competition as Liverpool, and something Guardiola himself acknowledged when asked about the issue.

“We need titles in Europe,” the Catalan said. “It’s so complicated, but you need nights that make the people understand it.”

If City have so far lacked the exhilarating experience of a night like that in the continent’s top competition, though, Guardiola himself has not. He has been there for plenty.

The discourse of the last five days has been especially focused on the manager – and particularly his failings – and that focus could now be a positive.

Guardiola is one of the few people in the club who does really understand nights like this.

He has been present for some of the most famous such nights, and specifically one of those five ties where a lead of three goals or more was overturned. It led to one of the most famous photos of Guardiola’s life.

That was the image of the current City manager as a 14-yearold and Barcelona ball-boy, hugging Victor Munoz after Pichi Alonso had scored a hat-trick at the Nou Camp to cancel out Gothenburg’s 3-0 1985-86 semifinal first-leg lead. The Catalans went through to the final on penalties, under Terry Venables.

There is another photo of Guardiola (right, above) looking up joyously and clapping his hands just yards from Venables while the manager is held aloft.

As one of those football people who really invests in the lore of the game, and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of such nights, Guardiola also knows better than most the distinctive nature of such games; their frenetic rhythm.

He knows the importance of an early goal, how they can scramble the minds of the opposition, how conscious Liverpool will be of this on Wednesday.

Aside from immediately bolstering the chasing side with that extra belief and impetus required, it has the double effect of creating instant doubt in the opposition.

This is what Real Madrid benefited from against Derby County in 1975-76 (Roberto Juan Martinez scoring after three minutes), Barcelona benefited from against Gothenburg in 1985-86 (Alonso, nine minutes), Deportivo la Coruna benefited from against Milan in 2003-04 (Walter Pandiani, five minutes) and of course, Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain last season (Luis Suarez, two minutes). Werder Bremen didn’t get an early goal against East German champions Dynamo Berlin in 1988-89, proving it isn’t essential, but did get one after 23 minutes and any side probably has to strike before halftime. That is as much to change the nature of the game as cut the deficit. Guardiola also knows how, once that first goal goes in, the second leg isn’t so much about the scale of the comeback as about the chase. The dynamic changes. It becomes about minds and resolve, as much as the numbers and the result.

That is what this second leg will likely become if City can strike first and especially strike early. They will be empowered, Liverpool instantly under pressure. Pulling it off would also be a first for Guardiola as a player and