Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne combined as Manchester City secured a 1-0 first-leg advantage in their Champions League last 16 tie with Atletico Madrid.
There was a debate over whether Atletico would abandon their usual style of defending deep and avoid City dominating and eventually cracking the code.
However, Atletico stuck to their plan and showed no signs of faltering. In fact, goalkeeper Jan Oblak did not have to make a single save in a goalless first half.
But, Pep Guardiola’s side stuck to their task and Foden made an almost instant impact to set De Bruyne up.
Atletico got forward more after that, but they go into the second leg in Madrid a goal down.
Four minutes in, Diego Simeone’s side showed their attacking plan. Marcos Llorente broke away on the counter-attack and drew a foul from Nathan Ake.
However, City dominated the half, finishing with six attempts – all off target – and 70 per cent possession.
Joao Cancelo and Kevin de Bruyne had deflected shots. But, City also failed to truly hurt Atletico from dead-ball situations, Aymeric Laporte heading a corner wide.
City subsequently looked to be neat with intricate passes into the Atletico box. De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling had penalty shouts waved away by referee Istvan Kovacs and then VAR.
The visitors’ deep defending made attacks a rarity and they struggled to find composure. Joao Felix span away from his City markers but only released an offside Llorente.
Atletico started the second half with the…
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