What next for Pep? | Henry, Micah & Carra react to Man City’s win over Real Madrid!

Welcome back to our Champions League coverage. Kate Abdo, Thierry Henry, Jamie Carragher, Micah Richards. The Champions League anthem has never sounded better to you, have you? I feel like you're enjoying it more and more, Micah. I'm embracing it. I'm taking it in. I'm not getting too excited. Got to respect Inter Milan. We see them play yesterday. They're a decent side, but it's all about seeing tonight. You should be excited, though, for the final. We are excited for the final. It's coming up on June the 10th, 1.30pm Eastern, live from Istanbul. Our coverage will be starting. It will be all of us, plus Peter Schmeichel, Guillaume Balaguer. The whole crew will be out there in Istanbul for an incredible Champions League final for Manchester City. It'll be the second final in the last three seasons after the heartbreak of 2021 against Chelsea. You've got to feel more confident going into it this time. One game at a time, Kate. I said it before the show and I'll say it again. We've got a hard game against Chelsea in the week. Yes, they give me confidence because in that first half they were exceptional as a team. The press was outstanding. Jon Stone's coming into midfield, dictating the midfield, outnumbering Real Madrid. Everything they planned was to a T. Kyle Walker, outstanding. Bernardo Silva, Thierry mentioned. Some called him a utility player. On the big nights, he turned up and what a win. What's coming, Kate? Pardon? What's coming? The Champions League final, I don't know. Istanbul's coming. Jamie, what stood out to you about Manchester City's performance tonight? I mean, it's nothing I haven't seen before. It was the level of opposition they're doing it against. I mean, we've seen City for years under Pep Guardiola putting performances like that. But as I said before, they did that against Arsenal a few weeks ago, who were top of the Premier League at the time. They've just done it against the European champions. I mean, I've got to be honest, for a lot of this season, I think even speaking to Micah and speaking to the odd City fan, even if you saw it on social media, people felt City weren't quite the same. It wasn't, something wasn't quite right. They let Arsenal get away from them a little bit. And something has just happened or clicked since the international break. The first game was here against Liverpool. I think the game finished 4-1. And from there, the football you've seen over the sort of last six to eight weeks is just being mesmerizing. It really has. But it was just funny getting to that stage of maybe two thirds of the season. We felt that something wasn't quite right, wasn't clicking. Couldn't quite put your finger on it. People talking about to be self-included. Was it playing with Haaland with a real centre forward before? They hadn't played with one for a couple of seasons and trying to get to the bottom of why they didn't look the same. But since, as I said, that March international break, I don't think I've really seen football like this on a consistent basis. Certainly when you're going for the biggest prizes, you'd expect a little bit of nerves to kick in. Even for a team as successful as Man City, because they're going for a treble. You know, something this club hasn't done before. Not won a Champions League before. But there's no sign of nerves. They're just swatting teams away so easy. And they just look levels above anyone playing the game right now. How important is that maturity that Jamie is speaking about? To go to the Bernabeu and come away with a 1-1 and then to take care of Real Madrid on a stage like this at such a crucial point of the season, Thierry? The structure does that to you. So it doesn't matter who does play in this team. And I agree with you, Jamie. It wasn't the case at the very beginning of the season. But when you have the walk up in your head during the season, it's almost like, let's put that away. And you come back and let's now play proper football. And that's what they did. But I'm going to go back to the structure, what they were missing. And again, I go back to what you said. We were right. Alan didn't adapt to the team off the ball. Off the ball and what needs to be done. Today, he didn't score. But that was a great game as a number nine. Thibaut Coutinho made three saves. But the way he held the ball, the way he was putting pressure, the way he was coming to create the overload at the top of the four, like Stones was coming, obviously, to be there. They created an overload with Alan at the top of it and Stones coming in. Real Madrid never adjusted to that. Once Pep Guardiola does find the right formula for his team, you're in trouble. Now they couldn't do it in Europe and they still didn't do it in Europe. They lost against Chelsea. One final. Can they beat Inter Milan? But now they have that special man that can score goals. And again, I repeat, it is way better off the ball since the Leipzig game, since Pep Guardiola said, I do not want only a striker that stays in the box. As simple as that. How good could this team be, Thierry? I think, listen, I talked about it before. What Pep Guardiola does, he doesn't put players. We talked about the players before. I know myself. I thought I was kind of OK in football and I arrived there and he deprogrammed me to reprogram me to a certain way of understanding the game. Now, if that team wins the treble, with the way they're doing it, at the end of the day, the amount of points they're going to get in the league is about what they do usually. We're valiant or not. Now we're valiant and we talked about it. It's a team that can win the treble. How good can they be? I think Sky is the limit. Well, when you're asked that, there's only one team. I'm not trying to bring Liverpool into this. There's only one team in English football who've ever dominated Europe. And that was Liverpool in the late 70s and early 80s. Man City about to win the third league title. No one's ever won four. So in terms of English football domestically, they're up there with the absolute best. Three titles in a row. I think Manchester United have done that a couple of times. Liverpool done it in the early 80s. But Manchester United never dominated Europe. They won a Champions League. City have still got to win a Champions League. But when you're talking about how good they can become, this team should be looking at, yes, getting that first Champions League in a couple of weeks. But for the quality they have in terms of the manager, for the quality they have on the pitch and also the finances, they can go and buy who they want virtually. They've got to be looking at trying to dominate Europe. And as I said, there's only one team in English football who've ever done that before, and that was Liverpool. And that's how high, you know, the Sky is for. And that's what they've got to be aiming for. So you have a longer exchange with Kevin De Bruyne. I don't want to ask you what you said to him, but what's kind of his emotional reaction to this, to this moment, to this game? Yeah, it was it was. That was a good way of asking, but not asking a touching moment. It was it was because. I can't I can't say it because I have to keep that private. But, you know, from what he said to me, I don't know if he's going to say it or the boss will say I have even more respect about how he played tonight and how he came in battle with with his team. I can't share what he said because I can't share it. That's how that's how it is. But once again, I'll go back to for me is the most important player. And we talked about you have different style and different things to do in this team. Most valuable. Yeah, we all know who it is, is Erling Haaland. There's a time we talk about it down the silver. I think the most important player is still Kevin De Bruyne. And you were talking about if he can win a treble with the amount of leagues that he won and the way they play. For me, it's also City with Pep. It's the tactical view of the game. And now they play that change the game. You know, some some people sometimes change the game. You had Sir Alex Arsene arrive and people were like, Oh, what is this? They change a bit of the way of people thought about the game. But I'm sorry. Pep Guardiola now with his City side, not only with Trophy and I totally understand what you're saying, Jamie, but what we see sometimes, Johnstone's coming in and all this stuff. And I know and I know he takes that also from Reynos Miquels. And if you don't know Reynos Miquels, go and Google. Cruyff, him. But he put it to a level that, you know, sometimes I sit there and I'm trying to watch what he's doing. Johnstone's the way they made Real Madrid look average because he's always trying to put his team in a situation where they have an overload everywhere on the field. Plus the way they possess the ball, plus the way they defend with it because they keep it and the way they finish is just brilliant to watch. Everyone knows I'm an Arsenal fan. But if you don't like City, you surely have a problem in your head. You talked about how good you thought Erling Haaland's performance was. If you're a goal scorer, though, you want to score goals, right? How will he feel about the game tonight, do you think? I think getting to the final, he'll be happy. He's done what he set out to do this season. Broke all the records, still going. But I think he'll just be happy for the team. You know, if he scores a winner in the final, I'm sure he'll be happy. Look, we all know that he lives and breathes to score goals. But I think he starts to understand also what he does. The ball is important and we talked about it. I played games where I scored goals and I was shocking. So you're going to say something else? No, no, no, no. And I was shocking, really. And sometimes I didn't score and I did everything that you're supposed to do to help your team in a big tie in Europe. It's only down to goals and understand that that is bread and butter. We all know. But I saw him jumping. I saw I saw him going and take his flag and going around. He's going to the final. That's what he was looking for.