Manchester City coach, Josep Guardiola did not look calm even though his team had just picked up a 1-0 victory over Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the 2021-2022 Champions League quarter-finals.
The reason is that he feels there is a possibility that the wind direction will change in the second leg, aka there is a possibility that Man City will be pressured by Los Rojiblancos while playing in Spain.
The first leg which was held at the Etihad Stadium, Wednesday (6/4/2022) presented a one-sided attack. Man City with their striker collaboration spent almost the entire match in the heart of the opponent’s defence.
Until finally the attack became sharper since Phil Forden was added in the 68th minute. Kevin De Bruyne also got an assist from him in the 70th minute to ensure a 1-0 victory.
But after that advantage, the wind seemed to have reversed with the Atletico players starting to dare to go out on the offensive. It was recognized by Guardiola, his team had started to mess up.
Guardiola is not so sure about what kind of game Atletico will play in the second leg later. But, he predicts Diego Simeone’s team will go through the same thing as they started to fall behind.
“I don’t know what to expect from the second leg,” said Pep.
“It was different when it was 1-0, we started to be disorganised and they started to counter-attack and they have incredible quality up front and if you don’t attack in the right way they will punish you.”
“It’s more about the fact that, okay, we had the game 1-0, after we went ahead, we faltered a bit, the players (they) started to press a little higher, they had more combinations,” Guardiola added.
“I think what happens in the last 15-20 minutes of the game will be like what will happen in Madrid (in the future),” he added. Furthermore, Manchester City only needs a draw when they are the visitors at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium. The second leg of Atletico vs Man City will take place on Thursday 14 April 2022
