In the Champions League quarterfinals that ended this morning, Manchester City, the Premier League powerhouse at home, drew 1:1 with Real Madrid, and was finally eliminated by the opponent 3:4 in the penalty shootout, losing to the opponent with an aggregate score of 7:8 (3:3 in the first leg, 1:1 in the second leg, and 3:4 on penalties), hating the Champions League quarterfinals. After the game, Guardiola's employment was questioned by many British media.
In fact, at the beginning of the game, Real Madrid was ready to defend and counterattack, all the players returned to the half-court defense, leaving only Vinicius and Rodrygo two counterattack points in the front, which made Manchester City midfielder Rodri feel very surprised, and said helplessly after the game: "We didn't expect Real Madrid to retreat so deeply." ”
As the coach with the most Champions League titles in football today, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is an Italian who knows the essence of defensive counter-attacks. Obviously, he learned the humiliating lesson of last season's visit to Manchester City against the opponent and was bloodied by the opponent 1:4 in the end, after all, under the premise that Modric and Toni Kroos have started the countdown to retirement, and the physical strength cannot meet the needs of the whole field, with the current midfield configuration of Real Madrid, it is difficult to compete with Manchester City in possession, and it is easy to bring humiliation on the offensive battle.
Real Madrid's contraction defense allowed Manchester City to have an all-round advantage in statistics, with 67%-33% possession, 26:6 shots, 8:3 shots on target, 15:0 corner kicks, and a pass success rate of 91%:80%. Haaland, the team's number one centre-forward, is clearly on his back.
In this Champions League highlight game, Haaland played 95 minutes, with only one of his five shots on target and one header hitting the woodwork. Just looking at this, you may think that he is unlucky, at least fulfilling the responsibility of a central striker. However, with only five passes in the game, it was clear that Haaland was still outside the Manchester City system at the moment.
This is not the first time that Haaland has been invisible in important games, in the key games of Manchester City's strong matchup against Arsenal, Liverpool and Real Madrid this year, Haaland has only scored 2 goals in total, far lower than his average goal rate of 0.7 goals per game this season.
In addition to the accusations against Haaland, many media after the game also focused on another striker Alvarez, but the evaluation of him was completely different from Haaland, and more questioned why Guardiola only remembered that he had this striker in the last minute in the two games against Real Madrid.
You must know that Alvarez has always been known as Mr. Big Heart, the World Cup Argentina relied on him to get up from the bench, when the main center Lautaro was plagued by injury, he suddenly helped Argentina to win the king, he is in the Champions League, and currently has the highest goal efficiency of 5 goals in 7 games in Manchester City. However, in the two games against Real Madrid, Alvarez only got a total of 32 minutes, and considering that the second game was 30 minutes of extra time for Manchester City, which means that Guardiola only sent him on the pitch at the end of normal time in both games, it is debatable to keep such a player who has proven that he can change the game on the bench.
While the final result cannot be changed, the game will undoubtedly present a problem for Pep Guardiola, whether it is how to improve Haaland from a single attacking style to an all-round centre-forward like Lewandowski, or change the tactical configuration to add more positions to the Manchester City squad to break down the dense defensive weapon, which is worth thinking about before the next Champions League cycle.