The Portuguese full-back was not welcome when he returned to the Etihad in the 0-3 defeat of Bayern in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on the morning of April 12 (Hanoi time).
In the pre-match video, when entering the Etihad stadium tunnel, Joao Cancelo tried to step close to the wall to avoid stepping on the host team’s logo placed in the middle of the aisle.
On the day of returning to Etihad, the Portuguese player was only on the bench. In the 80th minute, he was introduced to the field by coach Thomas Tuchel with Thomas Muller to replace Alphonso Davies and Serge Gnabry. As soon as Cancelo stepped out to the edge of the line, boos echoed throughout the stands.
Cancelo entered the field when the score was 3-0 in favor of Man City. Bayern no longer fighting spirit, so the number 22 can’t make a difference.
The player born in 1994 joined Bayern with the goal of having a starting position but often had to sit on the bench in important matches of the Bundesliga representative. The last time he was named in the starting lineup, Cancelo and his teammates lost to Freiburg at home in the National Cup.
Bayern sacked Julian Nagelsmann to appoint Thomas Tuchel. After only a few matches under the former Chelsea captain, the Allianz Arena team disappointed when they were eliminated from the National Cup and faced a great risk of stopping in the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Speaking after the match, coach Tuchel said: “I am not happy with this result. Bayern were punished in situations where we were the better team. Everything was going quite well until before the second goal. The whole team played well until about 70 minutes.”