Muzi watching the tiger fight | Real Madrid advanced to the semi-finals on penalties, but not just because of a stroke of luck over Manchester City

The 3-3 result of the first leg was very enjoyable for the fans, but for both coaches, the problem was the same:

Too many goals conceded.

With the second leg closer to the result, City have a good way to strengthen their defence, with Walker's return allowing them to try to block Real Madrid's attacking lane on the left. For Real Madrid, they don't have the same good fortune as Manchester City, with Tchouameni suspended, but Militão is yet unavailable and Carlo Ancelotti can only use Nacho at the back.

Either way, this will be the best option for both teams at this stage. Real Madrid may not be as strong as Manchester City when they play away from home, but Carlo Ancelotti's tactical acumen has a way of getting the most out of his team.

As for whether they can play at a high level and thus overcome the disadvantage of playing away from home, it depends on the performance of Real Madrid and Manchester City.

After the opening, the tempo of both teams was not very fast, especially on the Real Madrid side, many of the options when handling the ball tended to be conservative, and before moving forward, it was more about safety:

It was a reasonable choice, after all, Real Madrid's test in this game is still to come.

On the Manchester City side, Pep Guardiola's thinking has not changed, and in this defensive line, he still chooses to push Akanji's position forward:

In the first leg, Real Madrid showed space for Gvardiol to shoot from distance, and they provided Akanji with space to respond in this game, so in the 8th minute, Manchester City penetrated the right rib from Akanji:

It's certainly not out of the question, and Bellingham just needs to be moved back to better help defend at the back, but Carlo Ancelotti is well aware that his side will need to play at such a risk in order to play more effectively on the counter-attack.

In the 12th minute of the game, Real Madrid paid off:

In the process, Bellingham received the high ball, got rid of the opponent and sent a pass, and a series of handling were very good, much better than his performance in the first leg.

On City's side, the problem remains the same. Rodri and Ruben Dias were unable to contain their opponents in large spaces, and when they arrived in the penalty area, Ruben Díaz did not dare to make the slightest movement in the face of Vinicius, nor did he dare to touch his body, so that the latter sent a pass for Rodrygo.

After this goal, Real Madrid, who are playing away, have more confidence, and Manchester City naturally needs to strengthen their attack:

Real Madrid can also cope with Manchester City's attack during this period, as Bellingham and Vinicius Jr. have their own ways to rescue Real Madrid from the pressure at the back:

Especially Vinicius.

In this first half, he really showed the good sense of a striker, no longer choosing to break through when he has the opportunity, choosing one-on-one, as he has done in the past few years, but fully observing the situation on the field and making the best choice for the team:

However, he is still a young player who has just developed a sense of prominence.

So after 30 minutes, as the team's physical fitness declined, Real Madrid began to gradually fall into the downside, Manchester City not only controlled the ball and suppressed Real Madrid, but also played the attack they wanted in various ways:

Despite not scoring a goal, the pressure on Manchester City is already quite high, especially when Real Madrid don't have a central striker.

Obviously, Real Madrid will experience a similar twist in the second half.

Compared with Manchester City, Real Madrid has fewer back-to-backs on the bench and the quality is poor, and Ancelotti will not make substitutions easily, so whether they can withstand the attack of Manchester City, who are behind the score in the second half, is actually a big question mark.

And what is unexpected is that Real Madrid made a series of passing errors as soon as they came up in the second half:

Theoretically, having just replenished their fitness through the break, Real Madrid's players are technically leveled here, and this kind of passing error should not have happened, but if it appears, it means that the team is in trouble.

As a result, Manchester City also seized the period when Real Madrid was unstable, creating a series of opportunities from rib attacks to set-pieces to Haaland's impact:

At this time, it was Vinicius and Bellingham who stepped up, and they interrupted the development trend of Manchester City that was about to take advantage of the opportunity by making fouls on the counter-attack:

This is crucial, but it's just a foul.

So from the 60th minute, Manchester City, just like at the end of the first half, began to firmly control the direction of the game, monopolizing the ball while suppressing Real Madrid, and Real Madrid also switched to a defensive posture with all hands in place.

In such a posture, Manchester City actually can't find any particularly obvious attacking space, especially after Real Madrid completely covered the space at the edge of the penalty area compared to the first leg:

Manchester City can occasionally score in the ribs, but they can't really threaten Real Madrid's goal, even if they have a striker like Erling Haaland.

So, at the end of normal time, Guardiola made a substitution, and when there was no longer a need for players in the winger position to defend aggressively, Guardiola brought on Doku to add more pressure to the veteran Carvajal.

So in the 76th minute, Manchester City sent in a cross from the left, Rudiger made a mistake in clearing, and De Bruyne seized the opportunity to equalize:

Like the pressure at the end of the first half, this was the most dangerous time for Real Madrid on the pitch.

The fitness of the players has gradually bottomed out, and the veterans of Kroos and Carvajal are about to lose their legs, and under the onslaught of Manchester City's new forces, the space is being dismantled one by one.

At that time, Real Madrid could only hope for the precision of Manchester City's players, which did make them wait:

Theoretically, going into extra-time and penalty shoot-outs away from home is not good news for the team, but for Real Madrid it is already a pretty good result.

In the final moments of regulation time, Carlo Ancelotti brought on Luka Modric for Kroos and Brahim Dias for Rodrygo, and they still have a real, but not very strong, real centre-forward as Joselu available.

Replacing Joselu, Manchester City's central defenders will immediately feel the pressure, and Bellingham and others in the second line will immediately get more space, but Joselu is equivalent to Manchester City's Haaland, and in a game of this intensity, you can only expect Joselu to suppress the back line, and you can't expect him to participate in the cooperation and organization of the front.

Ancelotti must have great doubts and hesitation about this, daring him to play 10 minutes at home, not necessarily away, and when Brahim Dias has replaced Rodrygo, Joselu needs to replace one of Vinicius and Bellingham.

It was clear that Carlo Ancelotti would not have made this decision lightly, and even if Vinicius was unable to continue the game after this sprint, Ancelotti did not use Joselu:

In this case, Real Madrid will need to make good use of these options in their hands.

Without Rodrygo, Vinicius and Brahim Díaz would not have been able to form a joint force on the wing, so Vinicius had already suffered a deflation on the left before this clash between Vinicius and Walker.

Real Madrid need to find a different path, and that path is by the side of Ruben Dias.

Real Madrid's goal in the first half was scored from the side of Ruben Dias, and when defending, Ruben Dias tends to be conservative, both in and out of the box.

Through this, Real Madrid can move forward:

Towards the end of the first half of extra-time, Toni Rudiger had a chance in the second attack from this set-piece:

And this corner kick was developed by Brahim Dias on the side of Ruben Dias:

It was the same in the second half of extra time.

Real Madrid defended without the ball, and when there was the ball, Modric was responsible for breaking through City's pressing line with passes and other means at the back, while up front, Brahim Dias used the space on the side of Ruben Dias to move forward:

With Ruben Dias in the background, Brahim Dias, like Vinicius in these two games, has essentially completed the task of rushing forward.

It was with this push that Real Madrid were able to withstand City's attack with limited hands and interrupt City's attack with their own advances, which is why they went to penalties after extra-time away from home.

In the penalty shoot-out, Real Madrid played with two midfielders and three defenders, and although Modric failed to take the penalty, the remaining four all scored. If you get things right, luck will take your side, and when Real Madrid were punished after the away game, Lunin put on a brilliant performance, saving two penalties from Manchester City to help the team advance to the last four.

Compared to the first leg, the score of this game has been greatly reduced, but the excitement has increased significantly, especially from Real Madrid's point of view.

In this game, Bellingham's performance returned to normal, he used his body to take on a lot of confrontation responsibilities, thus sharing a lot of pressure for Vinicius and Rodrygo, and under their respective division of labor, Vinicius and Rodrygo also completed their own breakthrough and goal tasks, allowing Real Madrid to occupy the opportunity for a long time.

In the course of the game, after Rodrygo and Vinicius were replaced for various reasons, Real Madrid used Brahim Dias to complete the forward tasks again and again, thus withstanding extra time and eliminating the opponent with a penalty shootout.

They didn't rely on pure retrenchment and defence to get into penalty shoot-outs, and the team's good performances on the road took the pressure off them, otherwise the midfielders and defenders wouldn't have played so calmly in the shoot-out.

On Manchester City's side, many problems have already arisen.

Ruben Dias's defensive problems spread from the beginning of the season to the end of the season, and the goal conceded over two legs is negligible when it comes to 10,000 steps back, and the most fatal problem is that Ruben Dias can always make opponents who are not attacking players play like a striker.

So it was with Vinicius, and so was Brahim Díaz.

As for the front court, not to mention. Haaland was blocked in the first leg by Antonio Rudiger and Tchouameni, and in the second leg by Nacho, who has been a substitute at Real Madrid's centre-back since he was young, would be too thin to see if such a player could only play the role of pressing the back line in a crucial tournament.

And, further on, Haaland's problems will lead to problems with him and Kevin De Bruyne in key tournaments, a lack of defenders due to the defenders filling in midfield, and a balance of power at both ends of the pitch.

Of course, there will be many friends who think that Manchester City's defeat in this game is just the cause of bad luck, and the natural decline after the treble season, etc.

However, the treble that skyrocketed last year, conceded an average of one goal per game this season, the League Cup and Champions League have both come to a halt, and the Premier League is mired in a bitter battle with Arsenal and Liverpool, is this just bad luck or a natural decline?

If you think so, then that's the most important consolation that Manchester City fans want to hear.