Pep Guardiola said that Manchester City had to be patient after Kevin De Bruyne broke Atletico Madrid’s stubborn resistance to win the first leg 1-0 on Tuesday night in the Champions League.
They spent most of the night banging their heads against the red and white walls of Atletico’s well-organized defence at the Etihad Stadium. But in the second half, Pep Guardiola put on Phil Foden, and his sublime pass set up De Bruyne to finally score for City.
“I didn’t think I’d win three or four-nil.” I knew who we were up against. For a long time, they’ve been together. Guardiola said that.
They protect so well. They are so small and so deep.” We took our time. You have to fight these teams. They want you to be afraid.
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“It’s a good outcome. The bad news is that we had a few more chances with Kevin to score again.
Even though City manager Pep Guardiola celebrated with a water bottle, the match isn’t over yet, and he knows that his team will have to work hard to win.
It’s hard to go to Madrid even if you have a 1-0 lead.
“We have to be able to control our emotions.” It will be a good test for us to see how mature we are and handle things well. Try to score and win the game.
At the start of a season-defining 11 days for City’s treble-chasing, this was a qualified victory that backed up their patient play.
Atletico has already knocked out Manchester United in the last 16 of the Champions League this season. Liverpool lost to Diego Simeone’s team when the Reds were champions in 2019-20.
Champions of Spain will believe that a victory in Madrid on April 13 can be theirs again.
“It’s clear that we were playing against a perfect opponent,” Simeone said that we need to use a great way to defend ourselves and not be ashamed.
“We need to be better; see if we can get the ball more in the second game.” We are still tied. Perhaps we can come up with more problems.
Over the next two weeks, City has no room for error. On Sunday, the Premier League leaders, Liverpool, are just a point behind them in the title race, so City has to do everything right to win.
Their next trip will be to Madrid. The FA Cup semi-finals will be at Wembley three days after that.
‘Extraordinary quality
When Manchester City lost in the Champions League knockout stages in the past, Guardiola was often criticised for making strange team choices.
Guardiola’s game-changing decision to bring in Foden should silence a few critics after it turned a bad night into a big win.
We knew that we could change it with our substitutes when the game was a little flat.
“Phil has a unique quality. I like him.”
He was calm enough to make a great assist, and Kevin had the best season of his life.
City always had the ball, but they often had to move it around in midfield before Atletico closed the door on them.
Simeone’s well-known pragmatic approach contrasts with Guardiola’s pure principles, which he espoused.
Ilkay Gundogan came close to scoring with a curling shot soon after the break. Stefan Savic was able to keep it out.
De Bruyne’s free-kick was the first time Jan Oblak had to make a save. Raheem Sterling’s shot went wide from a dangerous angle just after that.
He sent on Foden, Grealish, and Jesus when Laporte headed the ball away from Riyad Mahrez’s corner.
It was a good idea to bring in Foden because England forward played a significant role when City finally broke through in the 70th minute.
Taking possession outside the Atletico area, Foden danced away from two defenders and passed the ball to De Bruyne. De Bruyne timed his run perfectly to fire a low shot into the far corner.
