After ผลบอลเมื่อคืน the tantalising and rip-roaring first leg, Pep Guardiola invited Lee Johnson and his Bristol City coaching staff in to his office to talk over what was a truly glorious advert for football. They bounced questions off each other, which included the Manchester City manager asking whether the faded lines on the Ashton Gate pitch were a clever tactical ploy. But the white lines in question are the rugby markings, used not by the Championship football team but the Championship rugby club. On Tuesday night, Guardiola and the rest of his squad experienced this revamped and rocking sold-out stadium for themselves, as well as a rousing rendition or two of The Wurzels’ back catalogue. If Guardiola’s intrigue was a veiled compliment, his words afterwards were explicit.
Sergio Agüero guides Manchester City to Wembley despite Bristol City rally ผลบอลเมื่อคืน
Asked if Johnson’s side can be a Premier League team, he shrugged his shoulders a little and said: “They are there. But I think the Championship never ends, it’s always 300 million games to go into the Premier League.” As the Bristol City manager said himself, this was always going to be an unforgettable night, a party occasion regardless of the result. Goals by Leroy Sané, Sergio Agüero and Kevin De Bruyne were never going to kill a feelgood factor that has accelerated along this unbelievable journey, to within a game of a final under the Wembley arch. “The fact is it’s taken them two injury-time goals in both legs to beat us,” said Johnson, who guided his players on a lap of honour at full time. After all, it is experiences like these, plus their more hardening lessons last season, namely an eight-match losing streak, that have paved the way for Bristol City’s marked progress from fighting against relegation to being talked about as one of the best attacking teams outside the top tier inside 12 months.
Johnson hopes this run will galvanise his team, who can now guzzle a “full tank” of energy in every game, starting here against Queens Park Rangers on Saturday. The expected loan signing of the Saint-Etienne forward Loïs Diony will only enhance their promotion push. “Everybody’s buzzing about the city and that doesn’t end now,” Johnson said.
Johnson had said how his Bristol City team had to beware Manchester City’s frenzied nature but insisted his team would again play on the front foot against the country’s best. Frankly, it was not always in their control, such is the way Guardiola’s side dominate possession. But they did not cave in to the occasion nor relinquish their stance from the impressive first leg at the Etihad Stadium. As promised, Bristol City were bold and gutsy, typified by Marlon Pack’s header and Aden Flint’s late strike.
Bobby Reid, who joined the club aged seven, has been a goalscoring revelation this season but it is his willingness to hassle, harry and simply run that continues to set him out from the crowd.
