Man City becomes champion before Liverpool: Guardiola's tears, Klopp's tragedy

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Pep Guardiola: "We will be remembered"

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OLI SCARFF / AFP

A statue was recently unveiled in front of Manchester City's stadium.

You can see ex-striker Sergio Agüero celebrating a goal, holding the stripped shirt in his hand.

That goal symbolized one of the greatest moments in Premier League history: Aguero's goal in 2012 against Queens Park Rangers in added time in the last game of the season gave City the championship.

The most important decision of the season, brought about in the last few minutes.

Almost exactly ten years later, the league experienced something equally dramatic.

The aguero of the present is called İlkay Gündoğan.

On the final day of the season, City were 2-0 down at Aston Villa with fifteen minutes to play and rivals Liverpool missed a goal in the parallel game against Wolverhampton to go first.

The goal did fall.

But it became unimportant.

Gündoğan made it 1-2 in the 76th minute, Rodri equalized in the 78th minute and then Gündoğan scored again (81st minute).

Three goals in five minutes.

Five minutes for eternity.

Perhaps a statue should also be built for this man, wrote Bavaria's Leroy Sané on Twitter about Gündoğan.

Both once played together in Manchester.

Guardiola's tears

When the game was over and the championship was decided, the City fans stormed the pitch.

The cameras showed people celebrating, ecstatic players, and they showed Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola has celebrated many titles in his coaching career, but he has not often been seen as exuberant as he is now.

A few moments later the camera caught him again, this time Guardiola crying.

Then he jogged towards the cabin and disappeared.

Manchester City are the Premier League's pre-eminent side, having won four of the last five seasons while keeping one of the world's best teams at bay at Liverpool, albeit for a very short time.

But Guardiola seemed more connected to this title than to those before it.

In the Champions League he and his team failed again.

After the semifinals against Real Madrid, former top footballers criticized his team.

City lack personality, said former French international Patrice Evra.

Because Guardiola doesn't tolerate leaders next to himself. That's why the team gets problems when things get difficult on the pitch.

And now City actually seemed to be screwing it up against Aston Villa, fourteenth in the table.

"I come in and after five seconds we're 2-0 down," Gündoğan said after the game on Sky.

"You can imagine that there wasn't much hope left."

The favorite has shown weakness and he has overcome it.

Like a gymnast who wobbles briefly after jumping off the bar, but doesn't fall.

There are differences to the title win ten years ago.

At that time, Manchester's position in the league was different, the investors from Abu Dhabi had not yet put the sums into the club as they do today.

And City had been virtually second until Agüero's goal.

This time there was not a minute of the game in which the team was behind Liverpool in the blitz table.

The real surprise was that the change in leadership seemed so tangible.

The course of the game should have led to the violent reaction of Guardiola.

"Now we are legends," said the coach later about this fourth title of his tenure.

“These guys are very special.

We'll be remembered,' he said.

That may seem excessive to some.

There are critics who see the championship as a consolation prize for which only the Champions League counts.

Guardiola doesn't do that.

This is mainly due to Liverpool and Jurgen Klopp.

When the game against Wolverhampton at Anfield was over and fans and players knew they had narrowly lost to City again, Liverpool looked beaten as they had probably not been this season.

Many of the spectators stayed in their seats, Klopp walked his team below, handshake, hug, handshake, hug.

Liverpool are aiming to win four titles this season, and it would be the first time in English football that a team has won the league and Champions League, as well as the League Cup and FA Cup.

The club missed the historic quadruple.

With a win over Real Madrid next weekend, it would still be three titles.

Being second is "the story of my life," said Klopp on Sky.

Despite the fact that he has won eleven titles in his career, including the Champions League and three championships.

You just have to get more points than the competition, he said.

"We do not have that."

For the second time with Liverpool, despite an outstanding season, he was just one point behind Guardiola and City.

In 2019 Liverpool got 97 points, Manchester 98. Now it was 92, City managed 93. Any one of those points usually leads to the title.

There is something almost tragic about two outstanding teams playing against each other in the same league at their peak.

"You can't do more than do your absolute best and the lads have done that again," said Klopp.

“We chased the best team in the world to the end.

This is something special,” he said, looking ahead to the coming season.

»I've said it 500 million times: This is the best group I've ever had.

It's a pleasure to come to work every morning,' Klopp said of his players.

There was a lack of consistency in the first half of the season, he said, and announced: "We will put a team together again and continue."

They will, but so will the Manchester rivals.

It will hardly weaken in the coming year, on the contrary.

After all, the transfer of star striker Erling Haaland is already perfect.