Finally, Manchester City showed their capability to beat the best teams in Europe, even though they were playing away from home. At the Santiago Bernabéu, despite Isco scoring first at the hour mark, Real Madrid lost the game as they conceded two goals in the last 30 minutes. Gabriel Jesus’ and Kevin De Bruyne’s goals helped Manchester City to come from behind, while to make things worse for Madrid, Sergio Ramos picked up a red card and will now be suspended for the next leg. City thus have a good start to their Champions League knockout stage.
In this tactical analysis, we will show you how Pep Guardiola’s men beat Real Madrid. It is an analysis that shows you the tactics of both managers.
Lineups
Zinédine Zidane’s team played in a 4-3-3 formation. Ferland Mendy returned to the lineup after being rested for a couple of La Liga games. The midfield trio was formed by Casemiro, Federico Valverde and Luka Modrić; Gareth Bale and Toni Kroos were left on the bench, while Vinícius Júnior started as the left-winger.
City played in a 4-4-1-1. Aymeric Laporte started the game and partnered with Nicolás Otamendi; Rodrigo Hernández and İlkay Gündoğan played as the pivots. It was slightly unusual that Bernardo Silva started as the striker while Jesus was the left-winger.
Madrids build-up
Zidane’s team did not insist on playing out from the back, but they liked to keep the ball in the first phase of the attack. The general structure of the team gave Los Blancos the stability in the first phase of the attack before City overcame the deficit. Madrid had 562 passes (89%) and 49% of possession, which was very close to City’s 579 (90%) and 51% of possession.
When moving the ball at the back, Madrid successfully outnumbered the defending players, as well as maintaining the width on both flanks. These are all shown in the below image. For the centre-backs, they split wide and allowed Casemiro to sit between them. These three players enjoyed a 3-v-2 numerical advantage against the pressing front two of City. If we included Thibaut Courtois, in fact, they formed a quadrilateral to move the ball, which helped divide them into two passing triangles as well.
On
