Read on Twitter
The truth about Manchester City’s Champions League struggles:
Part 1: 2018/19
Part 1: 2018/19
This was probably the most painful moments City fans have experienced, and the manner in which events unfolded was nothing short of heartbreaking and crushing. Truly a night of anger and sadness for city fans.
Now I’ll be analysing just how City were undone in this game. Bear in mind before I begin: UCL games are nothing like league games. Anything can happen, teams give their 150%. That’s what makes them so special and unpredictable, meaning the best team may not win. Luck is needed.
City came into the second leg at a disadvantage having lost 1-0 in the Away leg due to some questionable defending from Fabian Delph and a rare penalty miss from Aguero which came early enough in the game that it could’ve swung the tie in City’s favour had he scored.
Not ideal.
Not ideal.
In a game where City fielded weaker lineup than usual, they still dominated possession but the goal just didn’t come, the penalty being the best chance city had of getting a win or draw. Guardiola insisted city played well but he left London with lots to process for the Home leg.
Prelude to the big night:
Fernandinho was injured beforehand and was a large doubt for the game.
This was a huge blow for City and could’ve potentially decided the tie, considering Fernandinho was at the peak of his career
Fernandinho was injured beforehand and was a large doubt for the game.
This was a huge blow for City and could’ve potentially decided the tie, considering Fernandinho was at the peak of his career
This meant Pep had to change his game plan for the night and devise a way of beating Pochettino’s formidable system with his remaining players. He gambled. Instead of keeping the midfield stable, he decided to field 3 pure attacking midfielders and a 6/8 in Gundogan. Very bold.
A crucial factor in this game was the compactness of the respective midfields: horizontally and vertically. Perhaps Pep didn’t trust Delph enough to act as a holding midfielder next to Gundogan which is why he gambled and played Silva. This had a noticeable effect (1)
City looked to bypass Spurs central compactness and use the channels, an area Spurs had been weak in after the departure of Kyle Walker and the decline of Danny Rose. de Bruyne and Bernardo we’re almost interchanging on the Right Wing at times and drifting into the final third
This interchangeability can be seen again
And you can see how wide the City 8s were at points in the game to combat the very compact block Spurs had set up
However this worked out in City’s favour massively, it was a master stroke from Pep and this system of keeping the 8s wide as interiors and then drifting into the half space left behind by the Spurs midfield and drawing players in resulted in two goals for City. Very similar.
Note that these goals only came due to the extraordinary footballing intelligence Silva and De Bruyne have. Watch Silva here for the first goal as he anticipates Mendy passing him the ball so he signals Aguero to get ready
Now for the third goal, de Bruyne’s sharp footballing mind sees the opportunity and takes the freekick short and early- exploiting Spurs’ laziness and manages to find Sterling at the back post with a remarkable cross
A significant event was Sissoko coming off near half time courtesy of a de Bruyne turn. This meant Alli had to drop deeper to fill the gap which would prove to be interesting as the second half came
The loss of Sissoko was big.Alli and Wanyama simply weren’t compact or disciplined enough to keep the midfield as compact as it was in the first half. City sill builder up through the FBs but they were starting to find lots of success in the middle too (reduced pressing from TOT)
As the game progressed, Spurs were really starting to suffer as City ruthlessly targeted their lack of compactness on several occasions, Alli being played out of position was ill disciplined
Again, City attacked and now they were having great success as Spurs really started to lose their shape. De Bruyne with an absolutely phenomenal dribble from the half way line assists Aguero who finishes clinically. City are going through.
And then the farce of Llorentes goal happened and the game pretty’s much died except for the offside goal at the end. Truly painful game, a game which city wholly deserved to go through but as I said at the start. It’s about luck and not always the best team goes through.
Conclusion:
Perfect gameplan from Pep:
•sacrificed some compactness in the middle but it got us 3 goals.
•pretty much nullified their attack in the second half
•if not for an illegal, handball goal we would’ve gone through.
(1)
Perfect gameplan from Pep:
•sacrificed some compactness in the middle but it got us 3 goals.
•pretty much nullified their attack in the second half
•if not for an illegal, handball goal we would’ve gone through.
(1)
Mistakes happen in games and it happened to Laporte but that refereeing decision was atrocious and that’s what lost us that game. Everything else was almost perfect from City and Pep considering Fernandinho was injured.
Cruel. But we go again. Ctid
Cruel. But we go again. Ctid
