The scenes in the streets around the Santiago Bernabeu in the early hours of Thursday morning were familiar.
Once again the supporters of Real Madrid were celebrating passage to a Champions League final. The circumstances of Real’s victory over Manchester City may have been remarkable but the singing and chanting that continued beyond 2am were not.
In Madrid, this is what they live for. Success in Europe is part of the identity of a club who have won the competition and its forerunner the European Cup 13 times.
Pep Guardiola's future remains up in the air – he is contracted to Man City until next year
City have never felt that. Even as Abu Dhabi money has elevated the Premier League leaders to the levels of the very best in Europe, European football has taken some getting used to, both on and off the field. After another numbing disappointment, that sense of relative detachment goes on.
If City can win the Premier League again this season, many people associated with the club will argue that is what matters and to a degree they would be right.
They are not Real Madrid and they are not Liverpool and do not aspire to be. City — particularly the club’s fanbase — are a club that for one reason or another see things a little differently.
As they attempt to move on from what happened in the closing minutes of Wednesday’s semi-final second leg, however, there is one issue that does cloud the horizon in an irrevocable way and it is that of Pep Guardiola’s future.
As it stands, the manager is contracted to City until the end of next season. By that time he will have been in Manchester for seven years. He hinted to a Brazilian business conference last August that he did not expect to re-sign. He subsequently tried to extricate himself from the implication of those comments but they were, in truth, pretty clear at the time.
Should he renew, it would help heal the pain of another failed Champions League campaign
Real Madrid pulled off a miraculous comeback against City to reach the final in Paris
Now, towards the end of another demanding English season, Guardiola’s intentions remain unclear. But there are those at City who believe the wind has changed a little, that the great Catalan may feel there is yet more to achieve, particularly given he is likely to have Erling Haaland in his squad by the time summer comes around.
For City,
