The Wanda Metropolitano Stadium will be in charge of deciding a tie that; in theory, had to be one of the most aggressive and spectacular in these UEFA Champions League quarter-finals. But it ended with a score of 1-0 in the first leg, favorable to Manchester City thanks to a goal by De Bruyne.
What happened in this match was unusual and unexpected for all football fans and, above all, for the fans of the English club who were desperate seeing the game plan that Cholo Simeone made with Atlético Madrid. It was a match where Los Colchoneros came out to defend themselves in their entirety, so much so that they did not have a single shot on goal.
Atlético de Madrid will have to change a lot regarding the match at Etihad Stadium; if they want to dream of being in the semifinals of the Champions League. Although everyone knows that anything can happen at Madrid’s stadium, Manchester City will come out to play their offensive and ruthless game as they have shown in recent seasons.
First Half
The game started with the script that we all expected. Manchester City owned the game while Atlético de Madrid waited on their pitch, to go on the counterattack. Cholo Simeone’s approach was clear and at times it became a 5-5-0 with Griezmann on the right and Joao Félix on the left, without forwards.
Manchester City’s scoring chances were becoming more intense, but without defining any in front of goal. Those led by Pep Guardiola were forced to center balls into the Atlético Madrid area and in that, the visitors find themselves very comfortable again. However, their centers once ended up in Oblak and others in the Atleti defenders.
The game continued in the same vein until the end of the first half when the local team began to show some frustration after the strong defense that the visiting team was playing.
Second Half
After the first half break, both teams had tactical changes and the results could be seen from the first minute. City had the best chance of the game so far when Oblak took a ball past Gundogan in the area.
But Atlético responded with two counterattacks from Griezmann. In the first, he couldn’t connect with Marcos Llorente, and in the second he succeeded but the one who couldn’t score was the man from Madrid who shot very loosely at Ederson’s hands.
After many attacks from Manchester City, there was a great pass from Foden in the area to De Bruyne, which the Belgian did not waste and managed to score the first and only goal of the match. Manchester City had managed to break the lines of Atlético Madrid and had been able to play filtering a ball as they use to.
After the goal, Atlético could not react and closed their game lines much more. Their only important plays were some individual plays by Correa or Lemar who entered the field instead of Joao Félix; but without any danger.
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