Following Manchester City’s evisceration of Spanish giants Real Madrid, a gleeful Jack Grealish has had his pound of flesh after retaliating at Madridistas legend Guti – who had summarily dismissed with scathing criticism the former Aston Villa midfielder’s performance after the first leg stalemate at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Madrid and City were at it tooth and nails in the first leg at the Bernabeu, with Kevin De Bruyne’s stellar second-half strike eventually cancelling out Vinicius Jr’s stunning first-half opener.
Post-match former Los Blancos star Guti was totally unimpressed by Pep Guardiola’s tactics, whilst singling Grealish out as a player who was nary a concern for his former club.
“The coaches have changed roles, now the bold one is Ancelotti and the defensive one is Guardiola,” a haughty Guti told Spanish channel El Chringuito.
“Manchester City have less offensively. They used to have two full-backs who came in like lightning from the back and now they don’t. They put in Bernardo Silva, who is not a winger, and they lose a player there.
“City have Jack Grealish, who doesn’t dribble past anyone. In the Premier League he might outsmart everyone, but I haven’t seen him in the Champions League.”
Guti’s words have now come back to haunt him with a vengeance on Wednesday night as Grealish and Silva convincingly ran Madrid ragged as they punished the Madridistas at the Etihad Stadium.
Silva drew first blood and scored City’s first two goals as he conveniently picked up the player of the match award, while Grealish terrified Dani Carvajal and was heavily involved throughout as Guardiola’s side sealed a 4-0 win to advance to the Champions League final.
Back in the studio to post- match with El Chiringuito, the show started with a shell-shocked Guti sitting in complete silence for several minutes, clearly dazed and in total disbelief at what he had just witnessed.
Gleefully adding insult to injury, Grealish posted a zipped-face emoji on Twitter on Friday evening, obviously happy that he’d managed to convincingly gag Guti into silence.
Despite the 27-year-old having only registered one assist in 12 appearances in the Champions League this season, and is yet to find the net himself, he has invariably become integrally to Guardiola’s starting XI, and after his display against Madrid he now holds the record for most chances created by an English player in a single Champions League campaign.
Grealish eclipsed Frank Lampard’s mark of 34 for Chelsea from the 2007-08 season, with the winger now on 35 with one game still to go and is an almost certain starter for that match as City prepare to take on Inter Milan in the final in Istanbul on June 10.
The former Aston Villa star and captain is also expected to be named in the starting line-up against Chelsea tomorrow.
The Sky Blues then face-off against arch-rivals Manchester United in the FA Cup final at the start of next month, as they redouble their efforts to achieve the treble.