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Manchester City will host its Spanish counterpart, Real Madrid, at the Etihad Stadium tomorrow, Wednesday, in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, after the two teams tied (3-3) in the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium.
Each team will need to win alone, in order to snatch the ticket to qualify for the semi-finals.
The last confrontation between the two giants at Etihad Stadium ended with a wide victory for Man City, 4-0, in the second leg of the semi-finals last season, but there are some obstacles that stand in the way of City repeating this scenario, which are as follows: –
The European champion is accustomed to imposing his control over the course of the game in front of all opponents, preferring to follow the method of possessing the ball by depriving his opponent of it.
This is in addition to advanced defense and pressure on opposing players throughout the field, in order to recover the ball as quickly as possible.
But this method leaves some gaps in the back line, which became clear in the first leg in the Spanish capital.
Vacant spaces were revealed behind City’s defensive line whenever the team insisted on applying advanced pressure or condensing its players in the opponent’s areas during attacks.
This caused a barrage of counterattacks, launched by the royal team through the Brazilian duo Rodrigo and Vinicius Junior.
This resulted in a goal for Rodrigo in the first half, in addition to many wasted opportunities that began with sneak attacks into empty spaces.
If Spanish coach Pep Guardiola follows the same method in the second leg, this will represent a real danger to the team’s goal, given that Real Madrid has players with high speed in attack.
But what may serve the hosts in the match is that the Merengues do not exploit their ferocious weapons, in addition to the possibility of Guardiola preparing a plan that limits the danger of the visitors’ attack.
Source: Koura