Call him Fraudiola or Bald Fraud but this guy is the best tactician out there. Here's how he showed it against Real Madrid. [A THREAD] #UCL

This time it was the pace and energy upfront from Gabriel Jesus, Phil Foden and Raheem Sterling that unsettled Real with their relentless pressing and led to both of City's goals that sent them through.

The graphic shows where City's intensive pressing game won them the ball back against Real Madrid with 36% (28/78) of their successful tackles (green triangles), interceptions (blue) and ball recoveries (yellow) taking place in the Real half.

This one shows the same data for Real's successful challenges, with only 20% (13/65) occurring in City's half

Foden the false nine - Pep Guardiola's plan worked to perfection in the first leg, and he got it right again at Etihad.

It was not a shock to see him using a false nine again, but it was a surprise to see Foden asked to play that role.

I thought Foden would be on the right but, when City was out of possession early on, he played the role of a number nine and 10 too.

That left Jesus on the left and Sterling on the right but, as Pep said afterwards, they were not very wide in the first half.

Instead, it felt like Sterling, for example, would come inside and operate in that channel between Ferland Mendy and Eder Militao on the left of Real's defence.

Part of the reason Pep switched his front players around at half-time was to give City more width, so Jesus moved central, Foden was pushed wide on the right & Sterling went over to the left. By then, City was operating with a more orthodox three-man attack when they had the ball

Some people have questioned why Foden was taken off when he was playing so well but, when he was substituted, after 67 minutes, the rest of the City team had covered an average of just over 7km. Foden had done over 9km at the same time.

Right from the start, he was everywhere, putting pressure on the Real defence. Yes, they made some bad errors, including for both of City's goals, but that was because they were never allowed to settle down.

It was the same all over the pitch - City was brilliant in transition, and they were so quick to react when they lost the ball. That set the tone for what was to come.

Walker an example of City's disciplined display - Kyle Walker made 95 touches against Real Madrid - the most of any player on either team, but only three were in the final third of the pitch

(l). Walker gained possession for City nine times, again a game-high, shown by the yellow triangles (r). He also made one successful tackle (green triangle), one interception (blue), two clearances (purple) and one unsuccessful tackle (red)

Walker saw the one-twos coming and said "go on then, beat me in a race" and Hazard did not want to do it. He was coming back inside because he knew he wasn't getting any joy out wide.

Normally, you would expect to see Walker flying forward...

..But he barely made it into the final third this time because his job was to stop Hazard and he did not want to leave the door open for a counter-attack.

So, City got it right at both ends of the pitch and, as well as their high levels of organisation, the other big positive for them was their composure.

Yes, things got a bit tense when Real equalised on the night but there was never a sense that the home side was panicking.

In the second half, they always felt in control of the tie, and they probably should have won it by a greater margin.

There is still lots to do if they are going to go all the way and win the Champions League, but this was an impressive way to book their place in Lisbon.

[End of thread] I am a United fan btw and there is no one in the world right now who is a better tactician than Pep Guardiola. Credit where it's due. Likes & RTs appreciated.