When 12 minutes had passed since injury time, the referee finally blew the final whistle; this time Manchester City may have a feeling of escaping from the Wanda Metropolitano stadium! The escape is not only that they carried atletico's final onslaught, but also that they escaped atletico's "personal attack" like WWE!
In the 35th minute of the game, after Atletico completed a shot on goal, the famous commentator Zhan Jun, who explained the game, said that "this is the first shot of Atletico in two rounds combined". And this sentence sounds a bit heartfelt, from another point of view, is that the first half of this game is actually a continuation of the first leg, and Atletico's expected goal is only 0.03.
However, even if there is no hope of scoring for a while, the pressure on Manchester City to return home is very different from the first leg. For example, in the first leg, Atletico's defensive strategy is to pile people in the backcourt, and atletico have many high-level pressing in this game. For example, the first leg of Atletico's counterattack is basically a direct big foot forward in the backfield, even if Felix grabs a point, it is often 1 to 3, 2 to 5; and this game Atletico has a lot of ground advance when defending and attacking, and invests more troops. Atletico's change directly led to Manchester City's passing of the ball on the pitch a lot of "unnecessary mistakes", even if it seems that Manchester City already had 8 shots on goal in the first half, but none of those 8 feet were on target, and the whole game, except for Gundogan got two chances, Manchester City almost never threatened Oblak's goal again.
However, Atletico lost one away leg in the first leg, which means that if they want to qualify they must score at home, and it is obviously not enough to defend. However, due to the fact that Atletico did not have the ability to play against Manchester City in the whole game, they chose to play at the back. In the second half, Atletico launched two waves of attacks; the first wave began at the beginning of the second half to about 60 minutes, but after 60 minutes, as the fitness declined, the initiative fell to Manchester City. Atletico's second wave of attacks began 75 minutes later, and from this point in time, Atletico's attack was completely out of the ordinary, their goal expectations were getting higher and higher, not only in the final stages around Manchester City, they did get the opportunity to drag the game into overtime, or even settle the battle in regular time. Considering the obvious gap in strength between the two sides, the last-minute siege also shows that Simeone's tactical arrangement has been effective.
When Atletico set off a fierce counterattack at home, Guardiola was caught in a dilemma:
1, physical difficulties; last week in the middle of the fight at Atletico, the weekend to play Liverpool, this game is to fight Atletico, the weekend to fight another Liverpool in the FA Cup. In the hard battle, Guardiola did not dare to rotate his core squad at all, and some of Manchester City's players were really tired of playing like this.
2, the on-the-spot consumption is large; regarding the large-scale kicking method adopted by Atletico in these two rounds, from different angles, each person will give "dirty", "ugly" or "iron-blooded", "tough" and other interpretations. But no matter how all parties view Atletico's style of play, no one will deny that Atletico's style of play is not only extremely expensive in itself, but also brings great consumption to opponents.
Of course, when Guardiola replaced De Bruyne with Sterling, it was both a passive adjustment and an adjustment that marked a tactical change. Putting Sterling in the arrow position was clearly a move Guardiola had prepared for the takeback to fight back. But it is clear that Guardiola's move is a failure. Because the referee's blowing scale is too loose, Sterling is obviously not in the same weight as Atletico's centre-backs Felipe and Savage, so that Sterling can't fight back after coming on, and the only value is only mixed up in the front. But considering that in the first leg, the mentality of many Atletico players was pizzled by Glalish, in fact, the possession ability is stronger, better at cheating set-pieces, and Graelis, who is good at engaging in the mentality of the other side, may be more suitable than Sterling to stir up.
Acker swapped Walker and turned Cancelo to the right, more like a helpless counterpoint adjustment; but this adjustment is arguably Guardiola's best adjustment in this game. Acker gave the team a lot of help in the final stages, in the air defense ring. Replacing Fernandinho for the B seat indicates that City will slow down and bring the 1-0 aggregate score to the final game.
However, from the result backwards, Guardiola's third substitution is flawed. On the positive side, Fernandinho's several tackles and protection of the second penalty were crucial. But from the bad side, the final stage of Atletico's attack is basically a 45-degree tilt; and Atletico's front court is also on multiple wrapping points, which can occupy the local numerical advantage, which actually adds a lot of air defense pressure to Manchester City's back. Fernandinho really couldn't help much in grabbing the header; the threat posed by Atletico's last wave of attacks stemmed from Fernandinho's header misstep. Therefore, with only 3 substitutions, there is certainly no problem for the Upper Fee Bird to play a double back to strengthen the frontal interception, but in the face of Atletico's simple and rough long pass rush, can you also put The Reuben who has just recovered from injury at the same time. What about Díaz sent up to air defense? Or is it simply another Zinchenko, fixing Ak in the middle of the road and directly compressing the opponent's space at 5 defenders?
Lying grass + fighting + Atletico siege, this game was really exciting after 75 minutes. The whole team is not in good state, although the possession rate is higher, but the rhythm and momentum are controlled by the opponent, hard resistance for 90 minutes, carrying a 0-0, Manchester City players may have a feeling of escaping from the octagon cage. In the teams that reached the top 4, in the knockout stage, Manchester City and Villarreal scored 6 goals, Real Madrid and Liverpool both scored 8 goals; but Liverpool lost 5 in 4 knockout games, Yellow Submarine lost 2 in 4 knockout games, Real Madrid lost 6 in 4 knockout games, only Manchester City still conceded 0 goals in the knockout rounds; so even in the final stage of playing Atletico, Manchester City was in front of the goal, but resisted the pressure to ensure that the city gate was not lost, indicating that this Manchester City already has the ability to be in adversity. Rely on the ability to bite down on the game. With no centre-forward, lack of heavy weapons to tackle tough problems, in the Champions League knockout stages, such a lack of room for error, the 0-goal defense has become Manchester City's biggest weight in the Champions League!
In the current Premier League, City lead Liverpool by one point, and the two teams will also meet in the FA Cup semi-final this weekend. In the Champions League semi-finals, Manchester City Liverpool is listed in the upper and lower halves, the current institution gives the probability of winning the Champions League, Manchester City and Liverpool are the same, compared to Real Madrid and Villarreal to be more optimistic, the entire European football in the 21-22 season the final theme is the red and blue three-line showdown. When the melody of the pass-and-control football echoes with the sound of heavy metal magic, who can laugh last?