Man City showed signs of the Champions League quarter-final curse still remaining against Borussia Dortmund

According to the form book, Manchester City vs Borussia Dortmund had the potential to become one of the most one-sided Champions League quarter-finals in history.

Before City started, City had not managed to win just one of their previous 26 matches. During the same period, Dortmund had lost five and left them well away from the Bundesliga’s top four. Two key players, Jadon Sancho and Axel Witsel, were also missing for the visitors.

Despite this, BVB had a great psychological trump card; namely City’s Champions League quarter-final.

Stay with me guys | OLI SCARFF / Getty Images

On the surface, Craig Shakespeare and Pep Guardiola have very little in common. Shakespeare is never without a ball under each arm, embedded against his large British beer belly. He is also always covered top to toe in what free training overalls he can take care of.

However, Guardiola treats the touchline as its own personal catwalk, and regains the latest designer brands and Cologne. In addition, the former Barcelona boss has a team of costly backroom staff to carry his balls for him, an idea that (probably) makes Shakespeare feel physically ill.

Perhaps the only similarity between the two coaches is that the longest they have ever taken an English team in the Champions League is the quarter-finals. Shakespeare’s Leicester City bowed out for Atletico Madrid as early as 2017, while Guardiola’s Cityzens have a list of four victories. These range from the famous, in the case of Liverpool, to the ridiculous, in the case of Monaco, FC Porto. and Lyon (with all due respect to them all).

On Tuesday night when Dortmund came to town, this disturbing story seemed to play on Guardiola’s players’ thoughts. Against an impressive but Shakespeare-less Leicester on Saturday, they were easily dominant and worked as smoothly as any Premier League team in the last decade.

City come away thinking they could have had more of the game | Michael Regan / Getty Images

This was not the case against the Bundesliga side. For all the problems Phil Foden caused the Dortmund defense, for all the powerful Kevin De Bruyne runs and for all the creativity of Riyad Mahrez, it was still a nervous night with the all-conquering city guilty of several careless mistakes. The most remarkable of these was Ederson’s terrible attempt to tackle a long ball just after half an hour.

Sprinting out of goal, the Brazilian carelessly took a touch and got the ball off his toes by the impressive Jude Bellingham. Ederson blushes was saved only by a triggering happy referee who incorrectly blasted for a foul before the ball crossed the line. This excludes the possibility for VAR to correct the decision.

Ruben Dias – a true challenger for several awards at the end of the season – also seemed rattled by the “curse”, or maybe it was just Erling Haaland’s presence. Dias made some uncharacteristic mistakes during the second half, while Kyle Walker’s waste in possession could also be blamed on this mental pressure.

Felt like we should have gotten away with more, but we return home with an important away goal ⏹ pic.twitter.com/zpoWAuY1Ck

– Borussia Dortmund (@BlackYellow) April 6, 2021

Physiological factors may also explain the structure of Dortmund’s potentially crucial away goals. During the previous period, City were over their opponents, but as has often been the story when they have faced less opposition in the quarterfinals, it lacked a killer instinct.

As a result, Dortmund were able to knock them out with a 1-0 win next Wednesday, and while that may seem unlikely given their leaky defense, you would not necessarily bet against those who surpass Guardiola’s accusations at night.

If things go wrong (again) it will be impossible for City not to throw their thoughts back to this evening where a more relaxed performance, free from the baggage of their depressing past, may have put them in a much stronger position.