In the early morning of April 27, Beijing time, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final arrived as scheduled, and the leaders of the Premier League and La Liga held a summit duel for the Tickets to the Champions League final at the Etihad Stadium. The last time the two teams met in the Champions League, Manchester City city away to beat Real Madrid 2-1 at the same time.
Both teams have performed quite well in the league this season, with Manchester City currently dominating the Premier League table by one point, while Real Madrid are on track to seal the La Liga title early with a 15-point advantage. In the Champions League journey, Manchester City and Real Madrid both advanced to the knockout rounds as the top of the group, Manchester City eliminated Portuguese Sports and Atletico Madrid, and Real Madrid overpowered Paris and Chelsea.
With the season at the end of its season and both teams in the league and Champions League double-line races, neither team could play in the strongest squad. Manchester City's Walker was injured, Cancello accumulated a yellow card suspension, in the full-back position, Guardiola only has a full-back for Zinchenko available; Real Madrid back Casemiro can not play due to injury.
Therefore, Guardiola and Ancelotti are stretched thin in the starting lineup, especially on the defensive end, and there are obvious hidden dangers.
Manchester City started 4 defenders, Stones cameo as a right-back, Zinchenko as a left-back, such an arrangement for Manchester City's attack on the right, as well as the defense on the left, more or less have hidden dangers; Real Madrid's hidden dangers undoubtedly appear in the back position, as an organized midfielder, Kroos will often retreat to the back position, receive the ball from the back and complete the transition, but let Kroos serve as a single back, facing Manchester City's multi-point blossoming frontless team, obviously some are not enough.
With the referee's whistle, Real Madrid's hidden dangers were exposed first. Less than two minutes into the opening, City's right side, Mahrez Neche, passed the ball to the middle of the penalty area, De Bruyne astutely stepped forward in front of Carvajal, and the fish jumped to the top to send the ball into the goal guarded by Courtois. Judging from the process of scoring goals, after Mahrezneche, Kroos, who played as a defender, did not make effective interference.
Nine minutes later, the Real Madrid defender line, which lacked midfield protection, was hit again, de Bruyne and Foden easily fed the ball to the feet of Jesus in the penalty area after a simple combination on the left side, facing Alaba's single defense, Jesus deftly turned directly to Courtois, and a kick to rewrite the score to 2-0.
Only 10 minutes into the opening, Manchester City made a perfect start, and the game was completely in the hands of Manchester City, especially De Bruyne faced Real Madrid's useless midfield defense, and gave 3 excellent scoring opportunities, but Jesus, Mahrez, Foden, in the 7th, 26th and 29th minutes, ruthlessly rejected de Bruyne's "pie" to his mouth.
It has to be said that De Bruyne's state of this game is hot, coupled with the loopholes in Real Madrid's defense, if the Manchester City forward players seize the opportunity, perhaps in 45 minutes to solve the battle.
However, with the crazy "spitting" of Manchester City's attacking end in the first half, coupled with Modric's initiative to withdraw protection, Real Madrid gradually found the rhythm of the game. Especially in the 32nd minute of the first half, Benzema's key goal, so that Real Madrid in the back of the undefended situation, there is no collapse situation, although Real Madrid conceded 4 goals in the whole game, but in the end with tenacious will, through the attack to bite the score to death, and finally in a confrontation battle, Although Manchester City won the victory, but the 4-3 score means that next week's away game is still a vicious battle.
A champions league semi-final attacking battle, neutral fans are straight to the point of addiction, but for Manchester City fans, it does not seem to be too satisfied. Especially in the case of many opportunities at the offensive end, the inability to completely extinguish the confidence of Real Madrid players will bring huge hidden dangers to the second leg of the away match.
Therefore, some fans said bluntly: Hurry up and finalize Haaland! Even if it's to round a Golden Ball dream in De Bruyne!