PEP’S CLEAN SWEEP
Jesus’ semi-final strike keeps City on track for quadruple
IF MANCHESTER CITY do win an unprecedented Quadruple this season, this game will not merit an extended section on the highlights reel of a historic season.
There have been extraordinary Manchester City displays, days when the passing has been sublime and the combined talents of Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva seemed unstoppable. This was not one of those.
It looked as if it might when City took the lead through Gabriel Jesus after four minutes, concluding a passing move that mimicked some of their better moments. Yet the rest of the game did not play out that way. The increasingly agitated figure of Pep Guardiola on the touchline told its own story. As did the official award of the man of the match to Anthony Knockaert. And the half-time substitution of Kyle Walker for fear that he might get sent off.
This was one of those rare days when City looked a little unsure of their superiority. At times, they looked very rattled. From a point of complete assurance in the opening exchanges, incrementally Brighton disrupted their lines of passing and, in those frenetic final moments, as Brighton attacked and threw in crosses and Sterling countered only to be denied by Mat Ryan, City would have gladly taken full time.
At the end of it all, they will not care too much. Their dream remains alive and they will contest an FA Cup final here in May, where they will surely play better. As they will against Spurs in their Champions League clashes. Yet Brighton could take pride. In those dying seconds City were desperately playing keep-ball by the corner flag to run down the clock.
It was hard not to draw a comparison between the massed ranks of excited Brighton fans enormously enjoying their day out and swathes of empty seats, thousands of them, at the City end. No value judgement is attached to such an observation; Wembley matches are an expensive business. Tickets start at £30 and range in price upwards to £120. City’s success means that this is no longer that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Most will quietly be saving in case they need to be in Madrid in June for a much more glorious finale to the season.
Yet it demonstrates the rapid pace of change in English football. It is only eight years since a semi-final here against Manchester United was a mass celebratory carnival. That Yaya Toure-inspired victory represented the beginning of the shift in power between the two clubs and precipitated the first trophy of the new Abu Dhabi era.
As City began their ascent, from a rather higher base line, Brighton were still playing League One football at an athletics stadium, so it was understandable this game had more significance for them.
So it seemed almost cruel that within five minutes, that enormous enthusiasm at the Brighton end would be quite so ruthlessly crushed. Of course, all had travelled with hope rather than expectation, knowing full well that the task ahead of their players was one that only the elite teams such as Barcelona or Liverpool would relish.
Yet still, you anticipate holding City at bay for enough time to generate tension. Conceding a corner in the opening 45 seconds did not bode well. City had simply moved into Brighton territory for those opening exchanges.
And even when the ball did pass back to City’s defenders, it really did not help Brighton. In the fourth minute, Aymeric Laporte casually lifted a ball 40 or 50 yards across and down the pitch, switching the play in one movement, and landing it on the boot of Bernardo Silva.
He touched the ball back and De Bruyne swept in a sumptuous cross that was almost impossible to defend. It bent around Shane Duffy before changing direction and bending its way back towards the head of Gabriel Jesus, who dived to connect and guide it past Ryan.
Brighton seemed sunk before they had even left harbour. Yet, though more resolute defending would be required from a succession of corners, they did slowly regather composure. Not enough to generate clear-cut chances, but enough to hold their own and keep in the game. The closest they came was a Davy Propper shot from a narrow angle in the 27th minute that was just high and wide.
Yet they were at least unsettling City. So much so that Walker went close to being sent off after 34 minutes. Upset with Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s push on him as the ball went out of play, he leapt up and confronted the Iranian, aiming his
head towards him in a halfcommitted butting motion. A lengthy consultation took place between referee Anthony Taylor and VAR official Paul Tierney before the yellow card was confirmed. It was the kind of marginal decision Brighton needed to go their way. Guardiola responded by withdrawing Walker at half-time, presumably fearing a red card and suspension from the final.
Having made it to the break relatively unscathed, Brighton would start the second half with renewed intent. Guardiola’s plan to protect his right back didn’t work entirely when Danilo, sent on for Walker, picked up a yellow card of his own within five minutes for taking out Knockaert.
Brighton were beginning to sustain a period of pressure. From Knockaert’s 53rd-minute corner came their first genuine chance. The delivery was excellent, clearing a range of defenders and finding Duffy’s head at the far post. As his knockdown sat invitingly for Glenn Murray, almost on the goalline, to tap in, Laporte intervened, an outstretched leg taking the ball away from Murray and hacking it wildly over the bar.
City responded, Ilkay Gundogan had a curling shot from the edge of the box collected by Ryan. Now we had a game. When Knockaert caught City on the break on 63 minutes and sprinted with the ball goalwards, the Brighton end he was attacking surged with expectation.
Yet Knockaert was robbed by Sterling. Murray, who had been eagerly awaiting the pass, looked aghast. A minute later Sterling would be threatening Brighton, a dipping shot palmed away by Ryan diving to his right. Guardiola required more defensive steel and brought on Fernandinho.
Knockaert said afterwards that Brighton had no more to give. ‘We had a game plan and it was really tough,’ he told the BBC. ‘We conceded in the first few minutes and I think the City fans and the people watching on TV thought it would have been four or five at the end.
‘We go out of this Cup with a lot of credit. I am disappointed because I felt we could have got something. At the same time I am happy because if we talk about budget, a team with amazing players, what we showed today was incredible.’
‘When we came out of the hotel we saw our fans behind us and it gave us a massive push. I think they will be really proud of us.’