CL hits and misses: Man City collapse | Rodrygo's night

How do Man City recover from this?

The margins were fine, desperately fine. Jack Grealish had two chances. He did well for both. If the ball had ricocheted back off Phil Foden at a different angle for the first chance. If Thibaut Courtois had been wearing smaller studs for the second. If...

What followed was impossible to explain, a freak occurrence but for the fact that Real Madrid keep doing it. This was their night but what is left of Manchester City's season? That is a thought that will be far away in the Spanish capital but will need to return quickly.

Pep Guardiola will be bereft. Another chance missed when he appeared to have a team capable of winning this Champions League, ending his own 11-year wait for the biggest prize in European club football. Unlike some of the previous near misses, he played it straight.

There were no shock omissions, his set up neither too aggressive as in 2018 nor too cautious as in 2019. He had tweaked the system and been eliminated by Lyon in 2020. He had surprised some by asking Ilkay Gundogan to do Rodri's job in the following year's final.

Here, his substitutions, not Carlo Ancelotti's, almost made the difference. Grealish was close to being the hero off the bench. If that had happened, City might have been narrow favourites to beat Liverpool in Paris, just as they are to win the Premier League. If…

Instead, Guardiola must lift his players, refocus them in the knowledge that the trophy that has again eluded them - the one they craved - is gone for another year. All they can do now is maintain their standards, hoping a domestic title will sate them. Easier said than done.Adam Bate

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Omitted from the starting