Grealish may feel unstoppable but Guardiola knows danger of hubris

“I don’t like that, no,” said Pep Guardiola with a slightly edgy laugh. The Manchester City manager was trying to process, decompress and, yes, enjoy the Champions League semi‑final, second-leg dismantling of Real Madrid on Wednesday night when it was put to him that Jack Grealish had just said the team felt unstoppable.

In fairness to Grealish, he had called it after the first leg in Madrid, using the same word to describe the mood in the City dressing room before the Etihad return. To Guardiola, it was probably the only time the winger put so much as a syllable out of place.

Grealish was outstanding, albeit he was hardly alone in that regard as City stormed to a 4-0 win for a 5-1 aggregate success to set up a final against Internazionale in Istanbul on 10 June. There was a moment in the second half when Guardiola blew kisses at Grealish, which was certainly a counterpoint to the blow-up with Kevin De Bruyne. He and the midfielder exchanged angry words and gestures after De Bruyne made a bad decision on the ball. The emotions were raw.

Back to Grealish. Guardiola wanted to say it was great his players felt unstoppable and it is plainly a statement of fact – 23 games without defeat, one win away from another Premier League title, into the finals of the FA Cup and now the Champions League. The ultimate treble, the Manchester United treble, is within their grasp.

But, you know, maybe don’t say it out loud. “Because every team is stoppable if you do what you have to do … in football, things change completely from one day to the next,” Guardiola said. And, because, if there was one area of sensitivity for him after such a colossal victory and epic run, it is the notion City merely have to turn up in Istanbul to scratch