Kevin gives Man City edge in Atletico clash. Kevin provided the difference as Manchester City defeated Atletico Madrid in a narrow 1:0 victory.
Manchester city win their first leg of the champions league quarter final one nill against Atletico Madrid.
As expected Diego Simone’s men had all 11 players in their half trying to squeeze out spaces and block Manchester city from penetrating their backline.
Pep Guardiola’s Manchester city had few chances in the first half as they were restricted to long range shots from Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne.
Renieldo and Felipe at the heart of the Atletico Madrid defense put their bodies on the line,typical of someone’s type of approach.
They managed the first half really well as city failed to find a meaningfull effort on goal.Ilkay Gudogan with a smart turn shot snappily but his shot was charged down by a combination of both Sime Varsalko and Renieldo.
Manchester city pass the ball quicker in the second half and saw their claim for penalty turned down when Raheem sterling went down twice inside the six yard box to both Felipe and Renieldo shoves.
Atletico Madrid offered nothing going forward as both Joao Felix and Antoine Grizemann looked isolated upfront.
Antoine Grizemann should have done better when city lost possession of the ball, after sprinting the length of the pitch his final pass to Joao Felix was disappointing as it went out of touch for a throwing to city.
Pep Guardiola made an whole of changes as he withdraw the ineffective trio of Ryhad Mahrez, Raheem sterling and Ilkay Gudogan and replaced them with Phil Foden, Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish.
They added the needed impetus that city lacked all through the first half as Jack Grealish held on to the ball more and Foden looked to make solo runs driving at the heart of the Atletico Madrid defense.
City got the much needed break through as Phil Foden skipped from a couple of challenges before threading a pass to Belgium international Kevin De Bruyne who held his nerves to shoot his side into the lead just past the hour mark.
Phil Foden was a constant menace to the Atletico Madrid defenders as he danced through Hermoso and Filipe before squaring the ball to the middle of the box,it ricochet off an Atletico Madrid player before falling kindly for Kevin De Bruyne who should have made it two nill but saw his low shot charge down by Stefan Savic.
Kevin De Bruyne was named man of the match and he spoke after the game saying;
“The first half was tight, in the second half we had a couple of chances and it was good that we took one. I made the run and Phil Foden found me perfectly, I needed to stay composed and luckily I did. We have to stay composed. 1-0 is 1-0. I expect similar over there. If the game is tight they will have to attack a little bit more.”
Pep Guardiola spoke after the match,
“We played an incredible top side who are difficult to face, but it is a good result. We had chances to score a second and third. The guys were playing well but with Gabriel Jesus coming inside it gave us special energy, and with Jack Grealish to keep the ball. The manager is so clever.”
Diego Simeone, Atlético manager also had this to say;
“A good performance against an extraordinary team which manages to unite lots of world class footballers into a superb unit. We wanted to defend well, squeeze spaces and hit them on the counterattack. But just as we looked like creating our best opportunities they scored.”
Jan Oblak also spoke of his sides performance after the match;
“We all knew that this would be a complicated experience. We came looking for a good result, we lost but at 1-0 down the tie is still very much all to play for. We defended really well throughout the match with the sole exception of their goal. City play using possession as a strength but we were clear headed all night, we closed space down and I don’t think it was specifically their substitutions that changed the game – just that one moment.”
Manchester city take a narrow win as they head to the Wanda Metropolitano stadium bin Madrid for the return leg.
