Kevin De Bruyne gives Man City first blood against Atlético in Champions League
Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne (left) celebrates scoring their side's goal in the Uefa Champions League quarter-final first leg at the Etihad Stadium. Picture: Tim Goode/PA Wire
Pep Guardiola drew first blood in his managerial chess match with Diego Simeone, seeing his second-half substitute Phil Foden carve out the only goal of this quarter-final first leg just 80 seconds after coming on.
It was also the England forward’s first touch of the evening as he accelerated majestically through three converging defenders and slipped the ball through for Kevin De Bruyne to convert from six yards.
And, with that, the Champions League tie swung slightly in Guardiola’s favour although recent history, and the effective way the Spanish took the sting out of this tie for so long, means it it far from over.
The first half was an extraordinary showcase in what makes Atletico, and renegade Simeone, tick. Low on entertainment, devoid of a shot on target, but a textbook example of how to play an away leg in Europe.
Atletico kicked off nominally in a 5-3-2 formation. It did not take long for it to become 5-5-0 as Simeone pulled the strings and kicked every ball in - or, more accurately, outside - his technical area.
An Energizer Bunny of a man, Simeone threw himself around, castigating his players and reacting in exaggerated dismay to every mis-placed pass or blown defensive assignment.
Not that there were many of those. Atletico may have been distinctly second best in terms of possession, and not even a factor when it came to forays into the opposition area, but they looked extremely comfortable in spite of those limitations.
It said everything that the Romanian referee could not even find a solitary minute of added time at the end of the first period, so ruthlessly lean and efficient had the visitors been in strangling the life out of the tie.
Guardiola, of course, had seen this coming; a fact exemplified by how keen the City ballboys were on the night, spares being thrown at City players every time the ball went out of play in an attempt to stop Atletico time wasting.
It was a vain hope, of course, so adept are Madrid at killing such ties - a fact that Manchester United, in this season’s last 16, and Liverpool, two seasons ago, can confirm.
There were hopeful penalty appeals as Bernardo Silva and De Bruyne went tumbling to the ground, while all City could muster in terms of anything resembling a shot was a strike from the edge of the area by Ilkay Gundogan which flew high over the Atletico goal.
The second half started a little more optimistically for the Blues, with Gundogan curling a deflected shot just wide of the goal although the corner that followed highlighted the threat the Spanish side posed on the break.
Antoine Griezmann broke upfield at great pace and, with Gundogan snapping at his heels, mishit a pass to Marcos Llorente when he would have been better advised to wait for the inevitable contact and foul that would have followed.
The attack briefly awoke Simeone’s men to the concept of possibly sneaking a goal, Griezmann managing to find Llortente on their next break only for his team mate to chip the ball tamely at Ederson.
At least there was now a danger of a football contest breaking out and City soon threatened from the second of two free-kicks won in quick succession on the edge of the area, after a foul by Renan Lodi on Riyad Mahrez.
De Bruyne took the kick, a superb effort that beat a well-positioned wall and forced Jan Oblak into a good diving save, with the keeper finishing the save by booting the loose ball clear.
Simeone blinked first, making a triple substitution with half an hour to go. But this was always destined to be a tie as much about the two managers as any of their players.
Guardiola had already taken a bold move, selecting reserve defender Nathan Ake at left-back ahead of Oleks Zinchenko, a necessary move due to regular Joao Cancelo moving to right-back instead of suspended Kyle Walker.
But now, Guardiola responded to Simeon’s move with one of his own seven minutes later - Foden, Gabriel Jesus and Jack Grealish flung on to add bite to an attack that had pretty much stalled.
It was the masterstroke City, and the tie, had been waiting for with the final 20 minutes far livelier.
Stefan Savic blocked well when De Bruyne might have finished and Angel Correa was cautioned for booting the ball against Grealish after he was fouled to the ground - an incident that saw Guardiola involved as an over-zealous peacemaker.
There will be plenty more of that to come, one suspects, in next week’s return leg, judging by the way the managers did not shake hands on the whistle.
MAN CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Cancelo 7, Stones 6, Laporte 6, Ake 5; De Bruyne 8, Rodri 7, Gundogan 5 (Grealish 68, 5); Mahrez 5 (Foden 68, 9), Silva 6, Sterling 6 (Jesus 68, 5). Substitutes (not used): Zinchenko, Steffen, Fernandinho, Carson, Egan-Riley, Mbete-Tabu.
ATLÉTICO MADRID (5-3-2): Oblak 7; Vrsaljko 6, Savic 7, Felipe 6, Reinildo 7, Lodi 6; Llorente 7 (Cunha 60, 5), Kondogbia 6, Koke 7 (De Paul 60, 5); Griezmann 6 (Correa 60, 5), Felix 5 (Lemar 81). Substitutes (not used) Lecomte, Suarez, Wass, Hermoso, Serrano, Gomez, Camara.
Referee: I Kovacs (Romania) 7
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