For Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final first leg game against Atletico
Madrid, it turned out that Pep Guardiola didn’t just have a plan for his players.
He had one for the Etihad Stadium’s ball boys, too.
The antics of Diego Simeone’s La Liga champions are no secret
and although Guardiola played down the prospect of time-wasting ahead of that game,
he was certain, privately, that it would be something that City would need to combat.
So, he made it clear to staff that as soon as the ball went out of
play in last night’s quarter-final first leg at the Etihad Stadium, a new ball should be supplied,
whether it was to a City player or, even more crucially, to an Atletico one.
City’s ball boys are taken from their under-12 and under-14 academy teams
and one of the instructions for Tuesday’s game was that they should
concentrate on their role as if they were playing in the match themselves.
Guardiola would also record a short, light-hearted video message that was
shown to the youngsters before the match, telling them that they were part of the big match plan.
According to academy sources, some youngsters later joked they had never been so nervous
in their lives, but that they also felt immense pride at being asked to play a role.
On the night, the television cameras often didn’t pick up on the ball boys’ work,
but it was occasionally possible to see them springing into action
by jumping over the pitchside advertising hoardings as soon as the opportunity arose.
This was a contrast to other games at the Etihad, where the pace of the ball boys is slower.
For those sitting inside the Etihad last night, the plan was more obvious,
with the ball boys often going right up to Atletico players and handing them the ball
on the touchline, or behind the goal in the case of goalkeeper Jan Oblak.
A good example occurred in the 35th minute, when a ball boy ran up to left-back Renan Lodi,
only to realise that he wasn’t going to be the one taking the throw-in. The ball boy improvised,
though, and quickly changed course to deliver the ball into the arms of Reinildo.
Later in the half, two ball boys actually raced towards Lodi to offer him the ball.
The one who got there first forced the issue so much that Diego Simeone
stepped in to take the ball himself, holding onto it for a few seconds more.
There was only so much effect that could be had, though, as the visiting players often
walked slowly to the touchline or took extra seconds once they got their hands on the ball.
Although those delays were not always picked up by the television cameras,
the whistles and boos from the home crowd told a story of how
keen the visitors were to run down the clock, even early in the first half.
It was something Guardiola had been asked about in his pre-match press conference and he went
out of his way to point out that City can also indulge in the “dark arts” when they need to.
“We’ll have to do the same to defend our position,” he said.
“It is part of the game, we have to know exactly how to play the minutes.
And Guardiola was also careful not to denigrate Atletico’s style of play.
When it was put to him that Atletico would be willing to “play ugly”, he refuted the notion.
“What is ‘playing ugly’? I don’t know what playing ugly is,” he said, before recalling a City
victory against Manchester United in December 2017 and how his team controlled the clock.
“Bernardo went to the corner and spent four or five minutes in the corner.
This is ugly?” Guardiola asked. “No, it’s not ugly. It’s being smart, it’s defending with
the ball in the final third to not concede counter-attacks and defending our position.
That’s all. I’m here to talk about what we do to try to play, I never judge the opponents.”
Never judging, no, but Guardiola is always planning for them – and doing so beyond the pitch.