Champions League

[Porque]

Atleti will have chances in the second leg. Don't let the first legs possession stats fool you.

 

[JamDav1982]

What are the better defensive players though? I don't get it. Correa is not fit after injury, Felix is their biggest attacking threat rn and Griezmann is obviously "the" defensive forward. It's clear to me he was set to defend because he did not start Cunha, did not play Llorente at RWB, instead preferring a half-retired Vrsaljko. Did not start Lemar, the more adventurous CM, as well.

Here is what Simeone says about the return leg: "We'll change how we play a little in the second half of this tie but it's all the same to them – City will play the same way. But with humility, and hard work, we'll compete. Then we'll just see where that takes us."

Anyone who is better at defending in 5 on front of box if being an attacker is irrelevant.

They didnt set out to sit as deep and be as defensive as happened.

City forced them to be that extreme and barely get out half.

Look at video 1 min in and other times it shows it.

Why did he bring on Lemar then? Nothing changed and it was 0-0 by that point.

His comments there add nothing. Of course they have to change some things they didnt manage a single attempt on goal and it didnt go to plan as he wanted.

 

[JamDav1982]

Atleti will have chances in the second leg. Don't let the first legs possession stats fool you.

Who is claiming they wont?

 

[Porque]

Who is claiming they wont?

Below

Right. If the tie was nil nil in Madrid. I could see ATM somehow nicking the tie.

But now, whrn they'll try to get a goal back City will just pick them of

 

[JamDav1982]

Below

That doesnt claim they wont get any chances...

 

[Porque]

That doesnt claim they wont get any chances...

... To go through.

 

[JamDav1982]

... To go through.

'Chance' would cover that more accurately.

How do you see their chance in second leg?

 

[Porque]

'Chance' would cover that more accurately.

How do you see their chance in second leg?

I won't be surprised if they progress. City are superior but Pep has a tendancy to implode in Europe. All it takes is a set piece or an early goal and the momentum switches to Atleti.

 

[JamDav1982]

I won't be surprised if they progress. City are superior but Pep has a tendancy to implode in Europe. All it takes is a set piece or an early goal and the momentum switches to Atleti.

I doubt anyone thinks it is absolutely impossible that any team cant progress but more likely City ease past them would be my guess.

Be good for La Liga if Atleti can get through but cant see it.

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Has pep ever lost the tie after winning the first leg ?

 

[soul24rage]

Has pep ever lost the tie after winning the first leg ?

Think the last time was in 16/17

 

[Fati_Future_BallonDor]

Think the last time was in 16/17

Ah right Monaco

 

[Birdy]

That was shameful by Atletico yesterday. But let's be honest, if the score remained 0-0 (City didn't really create high-quality chances bar the goal), we would be praising Simeone for the "defensive masterclass", Cholismo and top-tier shithousing. I was kind of impressed with their defending in the first half at least, that was an elite bus. Simeone was clearly playing for 0-0, but he didn't succeed. It is a crime against football to play like that with the players and firepower he has, but it is what it is.

The score forces them to try attacking at home, at least, which they can do. The City defense can shit the bed as well, guys like Stones and Cancelo are prone to individual mistakes. Basically, the return leg is Simeone's chance to save face and show that yesterday's game was part of the plan.

No one is praising him these days for his Cholismo shithouse...

Yes, you can say it was "impressive" how low and cemented the 5-5-0 or 10-0 was, but...
The dude forgot that in any defensive setting, no matter how abhorrent is, you have to have a plan to hurt the opposition on the counter.
He didn't have any, unless the plan was to let Griezman and Felix combine with one another with 80 mts in front of them until to reach City's box
Hence, the 0 xG record!

The guy is seriously past it!

AS for City, I disagree with most takes here.
They were patient against a block no one has faced this season, they controlled each and every aspect of the game, were never threatened.
They knew they need one moment to break them, and it came.
If the game was to go for 120' the setting would be exactly the same. If one team was to win, that team was City

It's the continuation of the football they played last season, and they are becoming more dominant.
They can win against anyone with this football

 

[Birdy]

I don't know mate, those two banks of five without any players upfront to at least try holding the ball up to organize counters suggests that Atleti were ready to engage in terrorism from the start. They were basically just clearing the ball from the 15th minute or so. It's not like City were barraging them with chances like Pep's Bayern did in 2016, purely from that perspective this was a dull game.

City's counter-pressing was top-notch, and Atleti's impotence was exacerbated by the poor ball-playing capabilities of Savic and Felipe. It is clear their plan was to try counterattacking in quick transitions, but any time they got hold of the ball, city players just knicked it off them. Atleti had 2-3 promising attacks in the second half that were not capitalized on. Still, they were afraid to attack/counter in large numbers all game long. At Wanda, they will at least commit as they did against Liverpool.

They'll probably lose helplessly like they did last year against Chelsea, but Simeone would take a 1-0 at Etihad in the first leg any day of the week.

That's another interesting point you bring up.

City has evolved the last 2 season precisely towards the direction of taking less risks in attack, committing less players in positions risky for defending possible counters, and organizing everything according to counter-pressing that would minimize or completely eliminate the possibility of a counter.
The result is that they don't barrage the opponent any more as Pep did with Bayern, Barca, even with City until 2020, hence they create less and consequently less clear-cut chances.
But the trade-off is that they are not vulnerable anymore on the counter.
Pep got slapped in the face so many times in CL, where he dominated games, created shitload of clear-cut chances, his finishers fucked them up, and at the same time a good drilled opposition like old Atleti, Klopp's Liverpool, or Spurs in 2019, or even meh Lyon, butchered them on the counter.
His head turned, and he decided to create tactics/formations so as to eliminate that danger.

The result is City 2020-2 that controls every aspect of the game, is not threatened, and scores as much as necessary to snatch a win.
You can say that it's less enjoyable than the previous version of City, but probably a better team especially for knock-out competitions

 

[Birdy]

Plus, one more thing:

Liverpool took the opposite trajectory. I have made this point in the past as well:
Klopp between 18-20 cared not to concede, control the tempo, and find the moments necessary to score goals.
That's how they won CL and PL in two consecutive seasons.
Now, this season, we see them go all out to attack like never before. It's the first season since Klopp took charge that Liverpool is outdoing City on xG created.
But that made them more vulnerable at the back than even before.
Look at yesterday's game against a solid defensive team but not elite: They paddled them creating 8 (!) clear-cut chances, 6 of them in the first half only. Clearly, Benfica who were so good in defending against Ajax, could not contain them. But they also gave them the opportunity to hit on the break with good prospects, that's how they conceded, and they could have conceded more.

That's the reason I think the current version of Liverpool is not winning CL