A writeup of the UEFA Super Cup
The UEFA Super Cup is an odd competition to American eyes. A matchup of the winner of the Champion’s League versus that of the Europa league feels like the NBA Champion playing the G-League champion. Or the Georgia Bulldogs, the reigning FBS national champs playing against South Dakota State, the winner of FCS. Ostensibly, these are two clubs playing at very different levels.
A team like City, coming off a historic treble, and with over €245 million in payroll, facing off against Sevilla, with just under €80 million in salaries and who finished a dismal 12th in LaLiga, and who wouldn’t have even qualified for this year’s Europa League, let alone the Champion’s League, if not for the heroics of last year’s finish in penalties over AS Roma, should be a laugher. The sort of game played by the bottom half of the team sheet to pick up some early season hardware and work out the kinks in the new squad’s strategy and spacing.
Sevilla, in fact, played City in the group stage of the Champions’ League last year, getting stomped by a combined two-leg total of 7-1, with 3 total attempts on target through 180 minutes and a 60/40 possession deficit.
Strange things can happen in a single-leg championship, however. A young season is filled with unknowns, uncertainties, and unproven strategic and personnel decisions. One game at a neutral site can lead to unexpected results.
Throughout the match, while City maintained possession at an even better 70-30 clip, Sevilla maintained poise and answered each question put to them. Guardiola’s lineup featured both youth and novelty, with Josko Gvardiol slotting into the back line, Cole Palmer put into the wing, and Kovačić starting in the midfield. He used players like Gvardiol and Akanji in unfamiliar positions, introducing them to his system of flexibility and usage, and which recent experience shows can take a year to feel comfortable fitting into. That discomfort definitely showed today.
With the (sadly recurrent) loss of Kevin De Bruyne to another long-term injury, City still searches for the sort of engine through the midfield to drive their attack. In further losing Ilkay Gündoğan and Riyad Mahrez from the ECL-winning team, the predictable answers to the too-oft repeated question are gone. So far, they don’t seem to have found a new one.
Meanwhile Sevilla, while short in possession, made the most of their chances. En-Nesyri tested a back line that was attempting to accomplish multiple tasks. Guardiola has built a firm defensive line and uses them in multiple ways, in defining the defensive border, driving possession through passes from the back, and allowing Akanji to be regularly sent into the midfield and further, akin to John Stones’ role late in last season. While City’s back lines of often gelled into intimidating walls of dangerously multi-talented players, this early in the season they allowed a number of questions to be asked. Youssef En-Nesyri regularly asked them.
In scoring the opening goal of the match, En-Nesyri slipped in behind Aké and found space horizontally and vertically, taking a thumped cross from Acuña across his head and into the near-side of goal. Further chances from En-Nesyri kept coming, the Moroccan finding chances off turnovers and counters, with strong efforts by Ederson the only thing keeping Sevilla from further lighting the scoreboard.
Halfway through the second half, City still seemed heavy and uncertain, toiling under the heat and humidity of a Grecian August and a pitch that slowed their passing and transition enough for Sevilla to regularly find answers.
Two fouls after the 60th minute let City set up possessions and build a sort of static momentum, leading to a ball handed back Rodri out wide to the left and behind the box. A seeking cross found Cole Palmer floating out unguarded near the far post, who cut in to the ball and equalized with a fluttering header. Palmer was the lone scorer in the Community Shield loss for City and is beginning to look like an adequate replacement for Mahrez in the three-man attacking midfield structure. Guardiola watched the goal from his seat in the dugout, looking neither excited nor relieved, but merely accounting the effort and result.
Immediately after the goal, El-Neysri found a startling opportunity, with Ederson again keeping City in the game after storming forward to close down the angle and taking the opportunity away. The remainder of the match played at a similar pace, with both teams awoken to possibilities, and the dread of a shootout looming at the end of regular time. Despite multiple great chances at both ends, the game finished drawn at a goal a piece.
Sevilla have played in four Super Cup Finals, as recurrent victors in the Europa League. All four have gone beyond 90 minutes. The competition itself has gone to penalties three times since 2019. If anything can happen in a one-game final, even more uncertainty is baked into a shootout. Team dynamics and strategy are set aside, allowing a title to come down to two men with a ball between them.
Sometimes, though, all you need is a crossbar. Through four penalties a piece, Kyle Walker’s shot came within a finger’s width of being kept out. Bounou got a half a hand to the ball, which deflected hard, bounced high, and buried itself in the top of the netting. Seeking a tying goal to keep the shootout alive, Gudelj went high and to the right, fooling Ederson who dove hard to the left. However, the power carried the ball a little high, ricocheting off the crossbar and handing a victory to City in Athens.
City have their first trophy of the season, after a disappointing showing in the Community Shield, and will look to add more hardware to the cabinet with an evolving squad and tactical approach. They weathered the persistent threat of a Sevilla team who put every effort into a victory and fell six inches short.