Guardiola: ‘Now Man City must fight the king of the Champions League’
SpainCoach Pep Guardiola is proud to have overcome Atletico in the quarter-finals, and highly appreciates Real Madrid – Man City’s opponent in the Champions League semi-finals.
After the battle draw Atletico 0-0 in the quarter-finals of the Champions League on the evening of April 13, when asked about Man City’s next opponent in the semi-finals, Guardiola replied: “This is the third time Man City has reached the Champions League semi-finals. And now we are about to We have to play Real – the king in this field. It’s only a matter of time before things get complicated. But if we play like the second half today, we won’t have a chance. away in Manchester, and at some point in the first half of the second leg”.
Guardiola comforts Simeone after the quarter-final second leg in Madrid on April 13. Image: AFP
Back at the Wanda Metropolitano home ground, Atlético kicked more actively than the first leg, creating many opportunities and increasing pressure in the second half. However, in turn, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Antoine Griezmann or Mattheus Cunha all missed. The most dangerous opportunity came in the 12th minute of injury time of the second half, when Angel Correa’s shot in the penalty area was pushed away by goalkeeper Ederson.
On the other side of the line, Man City did not pressurize like the first leg, but many times created waves towards Atletico’s goal, from Ilkay Gundogan’s shot to the column or midfielder John Stones’ header over the bar.
A 0-0 draw in the second leg helped Man City reach the semi-finals against Real Madrid with a 1-0 aggregate victory. For the third time, Man City is present in the fourth round of the strongest teams in the European Cup/Champions League, equal to Leeds and inferior to other England including Chelsea (8), Liverpool and Man Utd (12).
“We didn’t have much time to prepare for this game. Everything was difficult, but we tried our best. Atletico kept pressing. They played well in the second half, and Man City forgot how to play the game. fight,” admitted Guardiola. “We had a lot of problems, and Atletico had a chance to score. Man City had one or two clear chances in the first half, and in the second half Atletico were much better. At the same time, we had to go deep in defence. We had to adapt. We didn’t have the ball and felt the pressure. We didn’t like to defend, but we had no choice. Man City played badly, Atletico played well.”
At the end of the match yesterday, midfielder Felipe received a second yellow card for stepping on Phil Foden’s foot. This situation also leads to scuffle between the players of the two teams, when Foden rolled from outside onto the pitch to interrupt the game. The two sides continued to scuffle in the tunnel, when Stefan Savic chased and beat Jack Grealish and Sime Vrsaljko threw a foreign object and hit Aymeric Laporte. When asked about the incident, Guardiola briefly replied: “I have nothing to say”.
Man City lost strength after the second leg, when Kevin De Bruyne left the field in the 65th minute because of an injury, Kyle Walker limped and Phil Foden used a bandage to soak up the blood of his head wound. Guardiola admitted Man City was in big trouble when preparing to rematch Liverpool in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on April 16.
He said: “Three days after meeting Liverpool, we came here and now we have a lot of injuries. I don’t know what will happen in the coming weeks but we will celebrate when we go home. This is the second time. Three Man City are in the semi-finals of the Champions League. For us, this is a great success and the whole team is very happy.”
Hong Duy (according to Diario Sport)
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