Diego Simeone, the gangsters, the predators, football, the Champions League... Combined with this series of terms, this series of terms is the hardest team in European football today , Atletico Madrid.
When Guardiola's Manchester City meets Simeone's Atletico, it is destined to be the ultimate battle between attack and defense, spear and shield, flamboyance and iron blood. Manchester City's weakness is the front, Atletico's strength is defense, no front against the iron barrel, close your eyes can think of the glue and difficulty of the game.
In front of the hard battle, Guardiola finally stopped living this time, no whimsy, no whimsy, and the regular 4-3-3 no-front line was lined up in the Etihad. However, Simeone played a fierce game, posing a 5-3-2 formation, and before they could fight, they swung a false shot, and Griezmann and Felix directly retreated, becoming a 5-5-0 frontless formation.
Manchester City are invincible and atletico are frontless but not frontal. After the opening, City's onslaught was blocked under Atletico's defense, and the game quickly turned into a half-court offensive and defensive drill, with 21 players from both sides concentrated in Atletico's half, leaving goalkeeper Ederson alone crouching behind.
City's frontless formation became 5 midfielders and 5 strikers, Atletico's headless formation became 5 midfielders and 5 defenders, both teams took care of their homes, and the air at the Etihad stadium was filled with the smell of glue. But even so, at the end of the half, Atletico only gave Manchester City six opportunities to hit the goal with one foot, and none of them were on target, while Atletico himself was an embarrassing figure of 0 shots at half-time.
The difficulty and glue of the game was far more than expected before the game, and Guardiola must have imagined various situations, but definitely did not expect it to be so difficult. Attacking at halftime, but not creating a few decent chances, Guardiola looked in the eyes and was anxious in his heart.
Adjustments at halftime, corrections ... Guardiola had to do everything, but City still had difficulty breaking through Atletico's barrel-like defense, and after more than 20 minutes of gluing, Guardiola finally couldn't help but make adjustments.
Foden replaced Mahrez, Glaris replaced Gundogan, Jesus replaced Sterling, and Guardiola changed 3 people in one breath, crossed a heart, and continued to attack. This is probably a rare one for Guardiola to show his determination to win in the first leg of the Champions League knockout round.
This time, Guardiola won. In response to Simeone's defensive tactics, Guardiola's main attack is behind the back of Condobia, the gap between 2 central defenders Manvada and Felipe. After Glalis and Foo boarded the field, they continued to draw gourds in the same way, plotting back and forth on the right side.
Less than 3 minutes after the substitution, Foden found De Bruyne, who was inserted in front of him, and the Belgian midfielder wearing the captain's armband pushed a precise long-range shot into the far corner, and finally knocked on Oblak's goal.
The Etihad, who had been suppressed for 70 minutes, erupted in thunderous cheers the moment De Bruyne broke the goal, and Guardiola's catharsis was even more outrageous - he smashed the mineral water bottle in his hand to the ground!
Guardiola angrily threw the water bottle, there was the relief of "finally scoring", and there was also the pride of "I did it". The importance of De Bruyne's goal may not be apparent until after the second leg of the two teams is over. Since then, the players of the two teams have clashed continuously, and the scene of people turning on their backs has appeared one after another, and Manchester City has never been able to play another city, and Atletico still has zero shots.
At the end of the game, Manchester City, with an absolute advantage of 70% of the possession, only 2 of the 15 shots on goal were positive, and the 1-0 score was not easy to come by, and also took advantage.
Simone fell short, but by no means without gain. The away defeat was only 0-1, which was not a hopeless situation after the cancellation of the away scoring rules in the Champions League, although the data of the whole game shrinking 0 shots was very embarrassing, but the result was completely acceptable.
Obviously, next week's second leg between the two sides in Madrid will be very interesting, really!