Manchester City managed to secure a well-deserved 4-2 aggregate win over Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League last 16 after seeing off the Spanish champions in the second leg with a 2-1 scoreline on Friday night. Pep Guardiola’s men capitalised on some school-boy errors made by Raphael Varane and earned a comfortable victory through goals from Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus.
The Mancunian giants enjoyed more of the ball and made full use of their dominance by creating a plethora of goal-scoring opportunities in the final third. Guardiola managed to tactically outwit Zinedine Zidane at both ends of the field by borrowing some of Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp’s high pressing tactics in Europe.
Here are three ways how Man City managed to beat the Madrid outfit on their way to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
The High Press Of The Man City Front Three
Guardiola chose to name a front three of Raheem Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden. All three attackers were willing to press and rush the Madrid defenders high up the field using their pace and hunger to win the ball back. Their efforts paid massive dividends as Real Madrid’s Varane was forced into making two uncharacteristic errors of judgement which led to both of Man City’s goals on Friday.
Free-Flowing Kevin De Bruyne Pulling The Strings From Midfield
The League Cup champions decided to use Kevin De Bruyne as a free-floating box to box midfielder. The Belgian international often found himself in acres of space in the opposition half and managed to create several promising chances to score in the attacking third.
The 29-year-old caused all sorts of problems for Zidane’s defenders on the counter and enjoyed the freedom of playing in an advanced role in midfield. The decision to use him in such a way was a masterstroke by Guardiola even though the Belgian ended the night without a goal or an assist to his name.
Deep-Line Defending From Fernandinho And Aymeric Laporte
The La Liga winners tried to test the Man City centre-backs by launching some long diagonals towards Karim Benzema but both Fernandinho and Laporte managed to pass the test as they made some crucial last-gasp clearances to restrict the opposition to just one away goal.
Guardiola’s trust to let his centre-halves sit back and defend deep limited the opportunities Los Blancos could cook up going forward. It also opened up space for the Man City players to launch a few counter-attacks using the pace of Sterling and Jesus up top.
