The revelation of the 3-1 lesson Manchester City handed Sevilla at the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán was Manuel Pellegrini’s willingness, at last, to adjust formation and approach.
“We only play one way” has been the mantra of the manager since he took over in the summer of 2013. In domestic football the Pellegrini way allowed City to prosper in his first season, as the Premier League and Capital One Cup were claimed.
There has been progress in the Champions League, too. The club reached the knockout stages for the first time in 2013-14 and repeated the feat last term. Yet Pellegrini’s continuing focus on attack first had laid him open to a charge of tactical inflexibility. The two consecutive last-16 defeats by Barcelona were no shame but those 4-1 and 3-1 aggregate reverses left a question hanging: “Might Lionel Messi and company have been stymied if Pellegrini had altered his ethos?”
Tuesday provided if not a definitive answer, then a signpost to a new route forward when City next come up against a continental beast that needs taming. Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United, whose struggle with flair continued during Tuesday night’s home win against CSKA Moscow, may study what City did to Sevilla and consider co-opting it for their respective Champions League campaigns.
On Monday Pellegrini was again asked if pragmatism might be adopted and again the reply came that winning was the aim. Given the Chilean’s front-foot first approach it seemed to confirm Sevilla would be tackled in familiar fashion.
But Pellegrini was plotting a shrewder gameplan, one that proved an irresistible blend. Victory remained the ambition yet City’s sweeping attack mode would have the ballast of a dense midfield manned by Fernandinho and Fernando at the base and Yaya Touré pushed slightly further forward.
What unfolded was a watershed performance derived from an element often absent when City take the field on big continental nights: balance. Sevilla had chances, as all teams do in club football’s blue riband tournament, but these were fleeting interruptions. City’s forward menace and muscular grip on midfield had Unai Emery’s men pinned throughout.
It was the second time this season that Pellegrini paired Fernandinho and Fernando as the fulcrum, with Touré advanced. The Chilean had done so in the goalless draw with Manchester United at Old Trafford. Against Sevilla it gave City control, with Fernandinho to the fore as he continued this term’s stellar form. The Brazilian was a whirr of tackles, interventions and surges upfield that ensured momentum was always with his side.
It was a total team display. All of the City XI impressed, with Raheem Sterling, Fernandinho and Wilfried Bony scoring and Joe Hart making a crucial save from Timothée Kolodziejczak when the score was 2-1.
By the end City had reached the last 16 again, with two Group D matches left, and Pellegrini acknowledged the change of tack. “I’m very happy with the way we played,” he said. “We defended well. I changed the system because I was not happy with the way we’re playing.”
Given the quasi-stubborn refusal to tinker with strategy and Pellegrini’s gnomic utterances, this may prove a road-to-Damascus moment for the Chilean and his City project. As he said of Fernando, Fernandinho and Touré: “I was very happy with the way the three midfielders play. We prepared the play to move into space and that was the reason we created so many chances.”
The fast and flowing style Pellegrini loves is one developed in South America and Spain at his nine previous clubs. Yet as a contented Vincent Kompany suggested, the display had a strong seam of old-fashioned English stability running through it.
“It was probably our best performance in Champions League so far,” the defender said. “If I can take one thing from this game the biggest thing is we weren’t naive, we were solid.”
This was all achieved without the injured Sergio Agüero and David Silva, and with Kevin De Bruyne a late substitute. The XI Pellegrini sent out against Emery’s team was: Hart, Bacary Sagna, Kompany, Nicolás Otamendi, Aleksandar Kolarov, Fernando, Fernandinho, Jesús Navas, Touré, Sterling and Bony.
If Fernando is now a first choice in a high-stake game, Navas can be dropped for Silva and Bony for Agüero, but working out where to fit De Bruyne, who has been impressive since joining in the summer, is a nice problem for Pellegrini.
Harry Redknapp, who took Tottenham Hotspur to the Champions League quarter-finals, said: “It was a fantastic performance. They opened up Seville so far many times. They could have scored six. It was one of the best away performances I’ve seen in Europe by an English side in many years.”
Kompany is also clear. “We have to adapt our style but played in a British way. You hear that English football is bad but we brought the best of British.”
These words will be seized upon by those with a love of the Premier League. One scintillating victory against Sevilla does not mean City will waltz on to the final, of course. But Pellegrini now has a blueprint for when Barça, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Paris Saint-Germain are in town.
And, United, Arsenal and Chelsea also have a new scheme to consider.
