The truth is that Manchester City did not lose first place in the Premier League table yesterday for even one second, but when a quarter of an hour before the end of the home game against Aston Villa, which was supposed to be a light coronation game, City were 2-0 behind, fate seemed cruel to Pep Guardiola in a particularly vicious way.
If the terrible relegation against Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final was not enough, the feeling was that the championship title was also slipping through his fingers, right at the last minute.
The 55,000 Liverpool fans, who sat in the stands of Anfield, celebrated like crazy, with their former idol Filipe Coutinho raising Steven Gerrard's Villa to a 0-2 draw with the big rival.
De Bruyne with the Holy Grail.
On the buzzer,
The result at Anfield in the game between Liverpool and Wolves was in the same minute 1: 1.
But the script was clear to everyone: another Liverpool goal, and it also wins the championship, six days before the Champions League final against Real Madrid.
The dream of the quadrupole, four titles in one season, is alive and well.
This scenario was clear to everyone.
To the fans of both teams, to the players - and especially to the two coaches, Guardiola and Jürgen Klopp.
The two have been fighting head to head for five years.
Guardiola looked desperate.
The truth is that until the 76th minute it was one of City's worst games of the season.
The players were nervous, stressed, nothing went their way.
City barely threatened Villa's goal.
And she absorbed twice.
Everyone knows the history.
No team that led the table before the final round of the Premier League era has lost the championship in the last 90 minutes.
Will this happen for the first time to City?
Precisely to Pep?
Manchester city.
A worthy champion, Photo: Getty Images
In England, compared to all other countries, only three exchanges are allowed (next season, thank God, England will align with the world).
Pep sent Alexander Zinchenko into the fray early in the second half, followed by Raheem Sterling and Ilkai Gunduan.
The veteran German, who is finishing his seventh (and probably last) season at City, came on in the 68th minute in place of Bernardo Silva.
Many City fans grabbed his head.
This means that Jack Grillish, the star who was bought for £ 100 million, will not share.
But Pep knew he had something to rely on.
Eight minutes after coming on, Gonduan slammed in Sterling's raise, which was on the field for 20 minutes.
The gate freed City.
The weights on his feet were thrown away.
Just two minutes later another substitute, Zinchenko, sent a message to Rodry and the Spaniard fired from outside the box into the net.
2: 2.
Liverpool are disappointed in the end.
Just about, Photo: EPA
City fans, many of whom had looked like at the funeral just two minutes earlier, were in ecstasy.
Also the players, led by season player Kevin de Bruyne.
Until the 81st minute, no action by the Belgian was successful.
But then he burst onto the field with a lot of determination, he told Gonduan, who was soon rolling into the net.
Remontade in 5 minutes.
In the last three months Gonduan has scored just one goal.
Yesterday he scored a double in five minutes and brought City the sixth championship in its history, and the fourth in the last five years.
The two goals scored by Liverpool in the closing minutes (Muhammad Salah and Andy Robertson) came too late.
Liverpool's quarterback dream shattered.
pp.
There is no such happiness, Photo: Getty Images
But Liverpool can still end the season with three trophies.
After winning the English Cup and the League Cup, this coming Saturday it will try to beat Real Madrid in Paris in the Champions League final.
But until Saturday there are a few more days.
Now is City's time to celebrate.
And she celebrated huge yesterday, after an unparalleled suspenseful end to the season.
Ever since Pep Guardiola started coaching City, it has not happened that they have come back from a two-goal deficit to win a league game.
The last time this happened, 17 years ago, the coach was Kevin Keegan.
Yesterday it happened to Pep for the first time - and in the championship game.
Big celebration at Etihad, Photo: AFP
In the end, City deserved the title.
She won more games than Liverpool (29 vs. 28) and scored more goals (99 vs. 94).
Now Pep will start preparing for next season, where he may finally achieve the title he does not yet have as City coach - the European Champions Cup.
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