In the early morning of April 27, the first leg of the Champions League semi-final kicked off, the Blue Moon Army Manchester City sat at home to meet the visiting Galaxy Battleship Real Madrid, after 90 minutes of fierce fighting, Manchester City finally beat the opponent 4-3, taking the lead in the two-legged match. But for the Premier League champions, it's obviously not a perfect game, and if they have a better chance, it should be a one-sided slaughter.
In this game, Guardiola sent a three-striker combination of Mahrez, Foden and Jesus in the front, of which Mahrez is the first scorer of Manchester City this season, and has scored 23 goals in various games, Jesus staged a good play of 4 shots and 1 pass in the last round of premier league matches with Watford, and Foden has been very stable this season, scoring 12 goals and 9 assists in 39 games, and the starting is naturally reasonable.
After the game began, the first to threaten was right winger Mahrez, who took the ball on the right and cut inside and sent a very hidden diagonal pass, inserting De Bruyne to jump to the top and score the ball, giving Manchester City a fantastic start. In the 11th minute, Jesus also scored, De Bruyne crossed from the left, and Jesus Jr. turned around and shot at the goal from inside the penalty area to catch Courtois off guard. In 11 minutes, City have scored two goals.
However, in the 26th minute, Mahrez made Guardiola on the sidelines jump like a thunderbolt. At that time, De Bruyne struggled to grab the ball, and B took the ball and shoved it straight in, and the inserted Mahrez formed a single knife. Foden was also plugged in the middle, but Mahrez chose to shoot with his own right foot, and the ball hit the side-netting. City missed out on a great opportunity to continue to extend the scoreline. The camera was given to Guardiola on the sidelines, and the Spanish coach jumped up from his seat and waved his fist angrily, watching the former Premier League MVP estimate to be fragmented if there was a Desert Eagle in his hand.
Just 2 minutes into the second half, Militão mistook the ball at the back, Mahrez easily got rid of it and went into the box, this time, he completed the shot with his left foot, but unfortunately, when Courtois was already powerless, the ball hit the left upright and bounced back into the box, and then Foden's supplementary shot also hit Carvajal.
In the following time, Manchester City and Real Madrid scored successively, and the score came to 4-2. In the 75th minute of the game, Mahrez still stood out against four Real Madrid defenders in the penalty area, but his small angle shot still slid out of the goal. You must know that 2 minutes before his attack, B seat just burst into the goal, if Mahrez scored again, not only the score became 5-2, Real Madrid will also be completely destroyed psychologically.
In this campaign, Mahrez played the whole game, delivering 1 assist, 2 key passes and 2 successful breakthroughs, and also had 3 steals on the defensive end, with a pass success rate of 84%. But in the shooting link, the former Premier League MVP scored 3 and 0, 2 of which were excellent scoring opportunities, and were one of the sinners who made Manchester City's transition from big wins to dangerous victories.
But even so, Mahrez scored a high score of 8.0 points after the game, second only to De Bruyne, who scored a great pass. This is in stark contrast to Guardiola's rave jump and the gritted teeth of Manchester City fans. In fact, although Mahrez wasted a few chances, he did not play badly. With Kyle Walker sidelined by injury and starting Stones coming off the field in the 32nd minute, Mahrez and B-seat were on the right and became the best defense. Although Vinicius scored 1 goal with his personal ability, in the 88 minutes, the Cubs only had 3 shots on goal and only 3 successful breakthroughs in 7 breaks, and Mahrez's interaction with him was still very effective.
As former Premier League MVP, Mahrez has a near-perfect left foot, and his shots and passes are almost incomprehensible. So despite the often ridiculous options for timing, Guardiola still sees him as City's number one right winger. In the second leg of the Bernabeu's life-and-death battle, mahrez will still shoulder the heavy responsibility, there is no doubt about it.