Closing in on their fifth Premier League title in six years, Manchester City's domestic dominance continues to grow, and as the Sky Blues again turn their attentions to Europe, there's a deepening feeling that this will finally be their year.
Pep Guardiola’s side are three wins away from retaining their Premier League crown, while there’s also an FA Cup final against local rivals Manchester United to look forward to.
But as had been the case in recent years, it’s the Champions League that represents City’s biggest test as Guardiola and his side continue to chase their white whale of European glory.
City as a club have a complicated relationship with the Champions League, with the club’s supporters in particular viewing the competition through a love/hate lense.
A hefty €60m Financial Fair Play fine from UEFA in 2014 was the start of the ill-feeling from the City fans, who by 2016 were regularly booing the competition anthem, so much so that UEFA threatened to sanction the club for doing so, but eventually backed away from that threat.
Huge swathes of empty seats at the Etihad, particularly during group stage games, spoke to a wider disconnect between supporters and the Champions League, while poorly implemented stadium bans for City away games against both CSKA Moscow and Dynamo Kiev led to further ill-feeling.
A second Financial Fair Play investigation in 2019 was eventually dropped but by then the damage had been done and with the club’s relatively poor record in the competition until that point, fans were willing to shrug off their team’s European disappointments.
This season however, there’s a sense of growing inevitability about the club’s European quest and while the booing of the anthem hasn’t stopped, there's less antipathy from the club towards the Champions League.
City’s performances have certainly helped. They’re unbeaten in Europe this season and have swaggered into the semi-finals, hammering RB Leipzig and making Bayern Munich look very ordinary over two legs.
Up next Guardiola’s side face the biggest possible test of their European credentials – a two-legged tie against the side that have made the competition their own in the last decade – Real Madrid (away leg live on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player from 7.30pm).
It’s a revenge mission for City and a rematch of last year’s semi-finals when Guardiola’s men somehow left the Bernabeu heartbroken after contriving to throw a 5-3 aggregate lead away with 90 minutes on the clock.
City’s remarkable collapse once again had people pointing fingers at the manager and asking questions about his tactical tinkering on the biggest stage. Switching Gabriel Jesus from his natural centre-forward role to play him on the left and instead playing Phil Foden through the middle certainly handed much of the impetus to Madrid.
There’s been corresponding stories from most of the big European nights where City have come up short.
Guardiola’s team selection for the 2021 final against Chelsea, City’s only Champions League final to date, still leaves many scratching their heads.
City were overwhelming favourites going into that final but the decision to leave both midfield lynchpins Fernandinho and Rodri on the bench proved to be the decisive factor as Chelsea went on to win 1-0.
Fernandinho and Rodri had played 59 of the 60 games City had played that season between them, but they looked on from the bench as Chelsea took control of the midfield and never relinquished it.
It was a similar situation the season before when Guardiola suddenly set-up his side with an unfamiliar three-man defence in their quarter-final with Lyon, only to see the defence predictably overrun and City exited the competition, losing 3-1.
"I overthink a lot - absolutely it’s fair (to say that)," Guardiola said, perhaps slightly tongue in cheek ahead of last year’s 1-0 victory over Atleitco Madrid. "That’s why I’ve had very good results in the Champions League. It would be boring, my job, if all the time I had to win the same way."
"Opponents have different ways to play," he continued. "If people think I’ll approach Atletico the same way as Liverpool, I don’t mind — I don’t think about that. The movements of Liverpool are completely different from Atletico Madrid, especially because every player is different. I have to adapt. That’s why I love to overthink with stupid tactics, and if I don’t win I look stupid."
While Guardiola may bristle when questioned about his tinkering for big knockout games, history and results suggest that there is a case to answer. Which make this season’s success, to this point, all the more intriguing.
Unlike previous years where City played without a focal point in attack and both responsibility up front and goals were split between the entirety of the team, this campaign has been different to anything City and their manager have served up before.
The brutal efficiency of goal machine Erling Haaland has removed the need for any tinkering around the edges or subtlety in attack.
Instead of worrying about overlapping full-backs, double midfield pivots and false nines, City’s approach has been beautifully simple – get the ball to Haaland in and around the penalty area and he’ll most likely fashion a goal.
The ruthless simplicity of Haaland’s generational talent means that there’s less room for error and far less reason for Guardiola to look towards altering his approach.
Everyone who’s watched Haaland and City this season knows what they’re about and Real Madrid will have watched hours of video footage, knowing full well what to expect at the Bernabeu on Tuesday. But knowing what’s coming and stopping it are two very different things.
Haaland has scored 51 goals so far in his first season for City, is on track for 60 and against a creaking Real Madrid defence, that only have 12 clean sheet in La Liga this season, you’d expect him to make hay in Spain.
As City’s not-so-secret weapon, Haaland has been unstoppable this season, but City and Guardiola have one more, less obvious trick up their sleeves.
Yaya Toure's controversial agent Dimitri Seluk has seen fit to lift a curse he’d put on City and their manager after Toure’s acrimonious exit from the club in 2018.
Seluk had previously claimed that 'African shamans’ would not let City succeed in Europe because of the way the club had treated his client, but has now rowed back of that supernatural threat.
"I want to apologise for this matter," Seluk said last week. "I think it is time for this bitterness to stop - and I know that Yaya feels the same because he wishes nothing but success for City.
"I can say that the spell has now been lifted by the shamans - and that I think City will win the Champions League under Pep.
"Do you remember when I once criticised City for not giving Yaya a cake on his birthday?
"Well it is my birthday this month and my present is for this curse to be ended. In fact, it is my hope that City win the Treble this season."
So that’s it decided then. Manchester City for the Champions league and someone needs to pay for Dimitri Seluk to visit Kevin McStay’s Mayo footballers.
Follow Real Madrid v Manchester City via our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app, or watch live on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.
