SIN DE BRUYNE AND NKUNKU
One of the main favorites of the Champions League started in the playoffs almost last. The Citizens were very lucky with the draw, because with all due respect to Leipzig, they are still a lesser team. Surely many of you remember how a year and a half ago the Mancunians defeated their rival at home with a score of 6:3. At a party, however, they lost 1:2, but it was at a time when they had no problem leaving the group.
This time, Josep Guardiola did not arrive in Germany in the best mood. Still, he is not used to winning only half of the matches, but that is exactly what happened in the previous four games (0:1 against Tottenham and 1:1 against Nottingham Forest). In addition, he arrived without two center backs John Stones and Aymeric Laporte, as well as the leader of the midfield, Kevin de Bruyne. In the Belgian’s absence, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez came out under Erling Haaland, with Kyle Walker taking care of the entire right flank.
Photo source: IMAGO
The locals did not have an injured Dani Olmo, so Timo Werner came out on the left wing of the attack, and André Silva came out on the front. Only the recovered Christopher Nkunku started the game on the bench. Thus, the hosts did not have the best scorer, and the guests did not have the best assistant. It’s a shame, of course, that the teams didn’t spawn in optimal compositions.
THE QUIET CYNICAL OF GUARDIOLA
Until the goal in the middle of the first half, the British were doing what they love best: full statistics in terms of the number and accuracy of passes. The second indicator reached an astronomical 97%! That’s nothing notable in Janis Blasviha’s gates that he didn’t generate. Forced to move closer to the center, Riyad Mahrez fell into a vice and could not free himself from the tutelage, and his teammates could not stand his rare jerks behind the defenders. But it was he who scored the goal that changed everything.
Before moving on to him, it should be noted that the “bulls” were completely satisfied with the course of the match. They calmly met the opponent with a low block and firmly held the formation. On counterattacks, they immediately broke into offside, but that didn’t worry them much. Until suddenly, for some reason, they decided to start playing the ball in front of their penalty area.
Javier Schlager interrupted on a cross pass, the ball was picked up by Jack Grealish and delivered to Mahreza in transit by Gundogan, who plowed through the middle and scathingly struck into the far corner. Blaswich was half a meter from the trajectory of the shot, but for some reason he was left alone as a mute witness to the goal. That is, in this episode, almost all the hosts made a mistake or played weakly.
Photo source: DPA
All the time that remained before the break, the guests killed the ball with a cynical roll of the ball without much desire to offend. As a result, “Leipzig” possessed the ball only 26% of the time and in 47 minutes he was honored with only one hit, and even Werner struck just before the half-time whistle.
GUARDIOL ABOVE ALL
In the second half, the Germans were forced to move forward, and for this, Marco Rose replaced Lukas Klostermann with the more dangerous Benjamin Hendrichs in attack. And he completed two runs into someone else’s penalty area in ten minutes. In addition, one of his moments was truly a goalscorer: the teammates overloaded the opposing flank and quickly handed the ball over to the defender who was on his own, but he shot into the far corner from a lethal position.
I suspect even Leipzig fans didn’t expect their team to change the game in such a way. Suddenly it turned out that the hosts’ midfielders outplayed their opponents. Ederson made saves once as Andre Silva dragged up the front and struck from a sharp angle, saved twice, drawing the ball from the near nine after Dominik Soboslai’s spike from 30 yards, but couldn’t resist Marcel Halstenberg’s serve. , who powerfully twisted the ball from the corner of the field towards the goal. The keeper twisted to intercept, but got stuck in mid position, and Joshko Guardiol edged past everyone to level.
Photo source: Reuters
Has the Netherlands reached that level of stardom when the mere fact of entering the field forces you to say a few words about it? Most likely yes, but tonight was clearly not in his favor. Whether City were on or off the ball, the striker bombarded off-the-ball defenders and prospects. Only once in the second half did he manage to make an interesting run towards goal after a pass from Grealish, but he missed the shot from the bottom.
I would also like to draw attention to the fact that in such a difficult match Guardiola did not resort to substitutions. By comparison, his counterpart Marco Rose made the most of all five chances. And this despite the fact that City has immeasurably higher chances, and the match schedule is even more complicated. If it continues like this, the “village” run the risk of arriving at the second leg completely exhausted. And it will take place in three weeks, on March 14.
Champions League. 1/8 end. the first game
Leipzig – Manchester City – 1:1 (0:1)
Goals: Mahrez, 27 – 0:1. Guardiol, 70 – 1:1.
Leipzig: Blaswich, Klostermann (Hendrichs 46), Orban, Guardiol, Halstenberg, Laimer, Schlager (Haydara 82), Soboslai, Forsberg (Nkunku 66), Werner, Andre Silva (Poulsen 82).
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Dias, Ake, Gundogan, Rodri, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva, Grealish, Haaland.
Referee: Gezubuyuk (Netherlands).
