Manchester City’s Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid was ultimately decided by a penalty shootout, after a 1-1 second-leg draw at the Etihad last night meant the tie finished 4-4 on aggregate.
If Bernardo Silva hadn’t dinked his penalty, or if Antonio Rudiger had struck the post with his and the ball had bounced out rather than in, there could have been a different outcome.
But the fact it even reached penalties should be considered something of a failure for City, who recovered from going 1-0 down early on to completely dominate the game. They created some chances, but relatively few considering their level of possession throughout the 120 minutes.
While the likes of Dani Carvajal, Nacho and Andriy Lunin deserve credit for good performances inside Madrid’s penalty area, City made their life rather too easy.
City largely concentrated on attacking down the flanks. They had different plans for the two wings. Down City’s right, Pep Guardiola knew Madrid are often weak in the channel on that side, with two centre-backs watching Erling Haaland closely. Therefore, Phil Foden was deployed out on the right, almost as a decoy to drag Ferland Mendy out, and create space for Kevin De Bruyne in the channel.
We’ve seen this type of attack many times from City, and this move, with Foden waiting for Mendy to advance and then feeding De Bruyne via Manuel Akanji, showed the benefits.
But De Bruyne, despite later scoring the equaliser, was not on top form — he hasn’t quite looked right since returning in January from a long-term hamstring injury. He played 21 crosses in his 112 minutes on the pitch, many of them wasteful or miscued. Foden is City’s most in-form player, but was considered a facilitator last night rather than the chief playmaker.
The plan down the left sometimes looked similar, with Bernardo in the channel. The difference, though, was that down this side, Madrid had a hard-working right-centre midfielder, Federico Valverde, who was happy tracking Bernardo and minimising space.
This meant Jack Grealish had opportunities to run at the exposed Carvajal, but — whether by instructions or limitations — he was unable to make the most of these situations.
This became a common theme — Grealish dribbling at Carvajal rather than trying to beat him, and then trying to cross from in front of him, as below.
At other times, he dribbled at Carvajal, didn’t fancy trying to beat him, and passed backwards.
Clearly, Guardiola wants Grealish to be cautious on the ball to prevent a turnover. And at times he offered flashes of acceleration and a couple of nice combinations with Bernardo. But a more explosive winger might have attacked Carvajal more aggressively and helped City win the game.
Grealish did, in fairness, dribble down the outside of Carvajal once, getting him booked. This meant that, in the second half, Valverde dropped to the outside rather than inside, and he became the one often facing Grealish. De Bruyne seemed to play more towards the left, perhaps as a consequence of space in that channel.
Another problem for City was they often ended up with natural defenders in tight situations on the edge of the Madrid box, and they weren’t slick enough with the ball. This has become Guardiola’s preferred approach, and it helped win City the treble last year.
But at times, it’s maddening — a manager once obsessed with technical quality across the pitch now finds his side conceding possession because he has loaded up on big defenders. For example, Josko Gvardiol — who, in fairness, had scored two cracking goals in his previous two games — is rather limited in possession.
When he receives this ball from Bernardo, there’s no excuse for him not getting the next pass right — but he misdirects his attempt to find Rodri, and loses possession, allowing Madrid a chance to break.
Shortly before half-time, there was a particularly telling sequence.
First, Gvardiol has various passing options here, but again misdirects the ball — to Valverde, who clears.
Rodri regains possession quickly, but then the same thing happens on the other flank: Foden slips in Akanji in a good position, but he almost treads on the ball and so loses possession, whereas a crafty attacker might have surged towards goal.
This is what happens when a team’s key attacking weapons are natural centre-backs — and it’s worth pointing out that, for all his brilliance, using John Stones as an attacking right-back in last season’s Champions League final produced lots of ponderous touches and poor control.
It’s also notable that City had 18 corners last night to Madrid’s one, and almost all the deliveries were simply launched into the six-yard box to test reserve goalkeeper Lunin. Previous Guardiola sides used corners to play short passing moves, because his sides were all about combination play.
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Then there’s the issue of Haaland, who was being closely marked by two centre-backs, and therefore can’t be blamed too much for his lack of contribution in the penalty area. But outside the 18-yard box, it remains remarkable how little he brings to the team.
In a situation like this, it’s difficult to imagine a previous Guardiola centre-forward who would show so little interest in coming towards play. Haaland is always trying to run in behind, and played just seven passes in his 90 minutes on the pitch. His replacement, Julian Alvarez, had 10 in the 30 minutes of extra time.
Guardiola’s substitutes fared reasonably well, with Alvarez testing the Madrid centre-backs’ positioning more, and the equaliser coming from one of Jeremy Doku’s accelerations down the City left, after he’d replaced Grealish on 72 minutes. Guardiola also switched Foden and Bernardo for the second half, trying to get the Englishman on the ball more in central positions.
But this was a missed opportunity for City. They got Madrid an off-night — the visitors couldn’t keep possession for long periods, and were weakened in goal, in defence and deep in midfield because of injury and suspension. But City simply weren’t good enough: not enough technical quality around the box because of the use of centre-backs, unimaginative set pieces, lacking ambition from Grealish down the left, lacking precision from De Bruyne down the right, Foden on the fringes and Haaland disconnected up front.
After 210 minutes of football across the two legs, you would struggle to make a case that Manchester City aren’t, overall, a better side than Real Madrid. Equally, you would struggle to make a case that City actually deserve to be the team advancing to the sem-finals.
