MARTIN SAMUEL

PEP GUARDIOLA has seen it done. The question is whether he is still interested in how they did it. April 16, 1986. Barcelona 3 IFK Gothenburg 0. European Cup semi-final second leg, aggregate score 3-3, Barcelona advanced on penalties. We know Guardiola was there because when Pichi Alonso scored the third goal, for his hat-trick, to level the tie after 69 minutes, a ball boy sprinted with sheer abandon and excitement across the Nou Camp turf to join the celebrations.

That was Guardiola, aged 15, and a protege at the club. He infiltrated the celebrations after the penalty shootout, too, and can be seen in the photographs of the players chairing coach Terry Venables from the field.

Now Guardiola needs his own three-goal comeback and, while Barcelona moved on after Venables left and Johan Cruyff gets the credit for the club it is now, the Englishman deserves his due.

To win Barcelona’s first La Liga title in 11 seasons and reach the European Cup final the next year means Cruyff did not take over a club in the doldrums, or one that conceded the league to Real Sociedad or Athletic Bilbao, as had happened the four seasons before Venables arrived.

So would Guardiola dare to focus on defence, as Venables did in the days leading up to the Gothenburg return? Would he desert every instinct telling him to attack, attack, attack and work instead on preventing the one development that would all but guarantee the tie was over: an away goal for the Swedes?

Venables was a smart coach. That is why, 20 years later, Gareth Southgate is still replicating some of his ideas as England manager. And having lost 3-0 in Gothenburg, he knew what the mood inside the Nou Camp would be for the return. He envisaged the noise, the passion, the desire that would cascade down from the sides of that concrete bowl, he knew what it would do to his players and how determined they would already be to avenge this unexpected first-leg reverse. And he knew he would not be able to harness it in any way that would make for a structured game. So he worked on his back line.

Venables divined that in a team bursting with attacking talent, Barcelona would have no problems getting forward. Everything they had would be thrown at Gothenburg. He felt it very possible that they could score three goals.

What he feared, what would end the contest, was if Gothenburg hit back on the break. One goal and Barcelona would need five. He could not guarantee five.

So, that week, every training drill focused on defence. And not just defence, but outnumbered defence. Venables took into account that if Gothenburg countered, such was Barcelona’s need to score, they would probably have numbers on their side.

He did not work with defence in its conventional shape, but on match situations: three versus four, two versus three, one versus two. Where to be positioned when a man down, how to cut off an angle, diversions, preparations.

It’s fair to say Mohamed Salah would not have been left on his own around the halfway line, as he was for Liverpool’s first goal against Manchester City on Wednesday night.

And Barcelona had great players, too. They won the league by 10 points in the days of twofor-a-win. In modern terms, they finished 15 points clear of Atletico Madrid in second place. They scored 18 goals more than any team in the competition and only Sporting Gijon conceded fewer.

YET, that week, Venables’ squad was not happy. They could not understand the negative focus when they needed to score three, at least. They would implore their

meester to work with the forwards on beating Gothenburg.

Venables remained loyal to his plan. On the night, attack would take care of itself. It was the defence he had to look after.

All those years later, would Guardiola allow himself to think the same way? Would he abandon the instincts that have served him so well — and may deliver the Premier League title tomorrow, the earliest it has been won — by shifting his focus before such a game?

City have scored five against Liverpool at home already this season, but four of those came against 10 men. Liverpool are a

different proposition now. The City defeat began a run of one win in eight matches across all competitions.

As the season has worn on, so Liverpool’s confidence and the effectiveness of their front three have grown. Without proper vigilance at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, Liverpool will score. And if they score, City are as good as out.

Barcelona came back from 4-0 down against Paris Saint- Germain last season, but for all the grand claims made on their behalf, City are not Barcelona. They do not have Lionel Messi or Luis Suarez, they do not have a way of playing honed over decades.

Barcelona even conceded a goal in the second leg, but still scored six to progress.

The reason we remember each detail, however, is that it was so improbable. Manchester City cannot rely on emulating the greatest comeback in European football history if they are to win through.

For Guardiola, this is his biggest test since coming to English football. When a man can win the league on April 7, losing a game, even one as big as this, does not make him a failure. Yet not to respond to it, to learn from it, to correct the faults, that would be troubling.

It is going to be hard to advance, no matter how well Manchester City’s forwards play, but the least that can be done is to stop Liverpool running wild again — to prevent them scoring is the bottom line. If Guardiola cannot do that, or is not interested, then City have problems, not just next week but next season, too.