Three things that stood out in Manchester City against Atlético Madrid: Guardiola’s team is missing a Haaland

Before the game, City coach Guardiola joked that he could try to play against Atlético with twelve men.

Even with one more man, his team would have struggled against destructive and very uncomfortable Spaniards.

Three things that struck Champions League quarter-finals.

1. Simeone almost gets through with a cement mixer scam

Diego Simeone has been Atlético’s coach since 2011. During this time, the Rojiblancos have earned the reputation as the “disgusting package” of the Champions League. There is hardly a more unpleasant opponent in knockout games than Atlético. Physical, tough and offensively sometimes mercilessly efficient – that’s Simeone’s football, even if it can be observed this season that Atlético is generally more offensive.

The task for the performance at the Etihad Stadium, on the other hand, was clear: get a reasonable result to throw the Skyblues out of the competition in front of their home crowd in the second leg. And in Simeone’s eyes, that works best when the concrete is really mixed.

Eight outfield players with purely defensive tasks and two “strikers” in João Félix and Antoine Griezmann, who are primarily behind the ball and should block passes. The 5-3-2 was sometimes a 5-5-0.

“In 100,000 years you hardly get chances against two chains of five. Félix and Griezmann played full-backs in disguise,” Guardiola complained on “Movistar Plus+”: “It was just incredibly difficult.”

City tightened Atlético from the start, central defenders John Stones and Aymeric Laporte were sometimes City’s most defensive players 25 meters from the opposing goal. But Atlético defended in a very disciplined manner, made excellent ball-oriented moves and had the right answer to almost all of the hosts’ attempts.

Simeone’s concept worked for a long time. City became more and more impatient as the game went on, the bad passes increased and Atlético even started two promising counterattacks. A De Bruyne free-kick, which Jan Oblak saved, was the hosts’ best chance of scoring until the 69th minute.

“It was a really tough game. Atlético plays so defensively. But that’s their style and they do it well. It’s very difficult for us to create chances,” said De Bruyne on “Amazon”.

Ultimately, Simeone’s plan was thwarted because Manchester City did have that one brilliant moment. Atlético was denied that. Since the 2003/04 season, the Rojiblancos have become only the fourth team not to find a shot on goal in a Champions League game.

2. City lacks the buyer for high balls

Because little went into depth and City’s fast-paced football never really got going, the Skyblues often had no choice but to end their attacks with crosses from the half-field.

But even that didn’t embarrass Atlético. On the one hand, there are enough edges at the back that like to defend high balls away. On the other hand, City is missing a breaker in the front, which hits the balls with a run-up.

Raheem Sterling, Riyad Mahrez and Bernardo Silva are by no means strong in headers. Ilkay Gündogan likes to move up into the sixteen to use balls, but much better on the ground.

De Bruyne is the most likely candidate, but against Atlético the Belgian was the man to hit the balls from half positions when City had no other way out.

One who could remedy this would be Erling Haaland. And it could be something – the Norwegian force of nature is closely associated with City. The Skyblues are said to be favorites in the race for the BVB star…

3. Joker Foden makes the difference

Guardiola had seen enough in the 68th minute. He took Gündogan, Sterling and Mahrez off the field and brought in the next line of attackers in Gabriel Jesus, Jack Grealish and Phil Foden. Blessed is he who can swap in so much quality at once.

Foden was less than 30 seconds on the pitch when the Englishman played the best pass of the entire game. Finally things went fast and vertically at City. Pressed by three opponents, Foden put the ball through to De Bruyne at the level of the penalty area line and thus overturned the Atlético defense.

“Phil sees how I want to start in the room and then plays the perfect pass,” said De Bruyne on “DAZN”. In doing so, Foden looked for the best position in a small gap between the two chains to play the ball in depth – including several shoulder looks for possible buyers.

“He knows exactly where he is and how to move in that small gap,” said Owen Hargreaves on BT Sports.

In his almost 25 minutes, Foden was the most conspicuous City player. In addition to the brilliant pass that led to the winning goal, Foden dribbled his way into the box from the right, leaving three Atlético defenders standing and serving De Bruyne, whose shot caught a defensive leg (80′).

City had 15 shots on target, only two were on target. Both times Foden was the preparer.