sport news I was shocked by how bad the Italians were - this is surely Man City's year for ... trends now

It's always a treacherous business predicting who will win any competition because you never know what Lady Luck has in store when it comes to knockout football.

But I make no bones about this one. I really think it’s Manchester City’s time in the Champions League.

In part, that’s because we can discount the Italian sides who competed in Wednesday’s second semi-final. I have to say I was shocked to see two such ordinary sides competing on a stage like that.

When I played in Italy, you had the very best players in the world out there. They were playing in their prime. It grieved me to see how it seems to have become a staging post for players who can no longer crack it at the big leagues: Oliver Giroud at 36, Henrikh Mkhitaryan at 34, Edin Dzeko at 37. AC Milan’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who was injured, is 41.

Italian football has had its financial problems, but I was astounded by the lack of quality that was on show in one of the world’s great cup competitions. The poor first touch. Players constantly giving the ball away cheaply under very little pressure. 

Both of those Milanese sides would be mid-table or even lower in the Premier League. Only Inter’s Lautaro Martinez would come anywhere near the top end of our football. For eliminated sides like Bayern Munich and Liverpool, it must have been a tough watch.

But then there was the other semi-final between Real Madrid and Man City: two fabulous teams with world-class players putting on an exhibition of how the game should be played, in every aspect. It was as good as anything we saw in the World Cup – if not better.

From Real, we saw a willingness to put on a different business head to the one they wear week-in, week-out in Spain, where they dominate possession. Real accepted they would be out of possession and every one of them put in a shift, even the most attack-minded players like Vinicius Jr and Karim Benzema. They gradually came into the game in the second half when City got their goal.

I expect them to set up in same way in the second leg next week and yes, of course, they could go to the Etihad and win the game without having anything like the majority of the ball.

For City, dominating possession will bring a jeopardy: the threat of being caught on the counter after a turnover in possession. There’s nothing new under the sun in football and the ways of counteracting this threat are the same as they’ve always been. The three parts of the team – defence, midfield, attack - must always be in contact. Don’t get stretched or isolated as individuals. Stay concentrated.

But the reason you don’t counter City too much is that they don’t give the ball away cheaply. They’ve got some defensive heads in that team. Kyle Walker always thinks worst case scenario and never strays too far. Rodri rarely empties that space in front of the defence. John Stones’ natural instinct is to defend, even though he now spends a lot of time in midfield.

I have to say that I think Rodri is emerging as the best holding midfield player in Europe. I would like to see more goals from him than his 16 he’s scored across the past four years. His goal against Bayern Munich was his first in the Champions League. 

But he’s big, powerful and rarely gives the ball away. He has that clever pass, can go long or short and senses danger before it happens because he, too, is thinking worst case scenario all the time. He can take the ball in tight areas and rarely gives it away. For a player so big and powerful to have such a silky touch is unusual.