The UEFA Champions League semi-finals kicked off this week with Real Madrid being extremely lucky to come away with a 1-1 draw at home against Chelsea. The second tie of this round sees Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City lock horns, with both teams hoping that this will be the season where they win their maiden Champions League trophies.
PSG started the game strongly through Marquinhos goal, and Manchester City were outplayed in the first half. However, Pep Guardiolas tactical tweaks at half-time allowed City to slowly begin to dominate the contest, and they managed to score twice from set-piece situations to take back a 2-1 lead to Manchester for the second leg, with the added advantage of having scored two away goals.
This tactical analysis will break down both sides tactics and explain how Peps half-time changes made such a big difference to this match.
Lineups
PSG were able to bring back two key players in Marquinhos and Marco Verratti who had missed the second leg of their quarter-final against Bayern Munich. Mauricio Pochettino made changes at full-back as well, with Mitchell Bakker and Alessandro Florenzi coming into the XI ahead of Laywin Kurzawa and Colin Dagba.
Peps preferred system at the moment seems to be a strikerless one, as he once again chose Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne as the attacking midfielders with Bernardo Silva in support. Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus and Raheem Sterling were all left on the bench.
