Real Madrid pulled off a major surprise last night as they defeated Manchester City 3-0 in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Los Blancos rode on the brilliance of Federico Valverde, who scored a stunning first-half hat-trick to put the game beyond Manchester City’s reach.
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Vinicius Jr. could have made it 4-0 after the break, but failed to convert from the penalty spot, leaving the door slightly open for the Cityzens to mount a comeback in the second leg next week at Etihad Stadium.
Guardiola speaks
Speaking to the media after the match, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola was not optimistic about his team’s chances of making a comeback in the second leg.
“There aren’t many chances, but we’re going to try, knowing that it’s complicated. We’ll look for it with our people because we know we can do better,” said the manager.
Talking about the result and the performance of his team, Guardiola added: “A 3-0 result is better than 4-0. There’s no denying that I feel it’s difficult to control their transitions. But I think we played quite well, we got to the back line many times.
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“The passing worked well, but we didn’t defend the first goal well. It’s a difficult result, but there are six days left and with our fans behind us, we’ll give it a go.”
On whether he was able to see the Manchester City he wanted to see on the pitch, he remarked:
“Most of the time, yes. Madrid deserved it, they have Vini, Arda, Fede… We played better in the second half, we had to defend better for their first goal, but the second was a great goal.”
“Our game wasn’t as bad as a 3-0 score suggests. Madrid played well, if they win 3-0,” he added.
Man City suffered a heavy defeat vs Real Madrid. (Photo by Florencia Tan Jun/Getty Images)
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Further discussing his team’s performance, Guardiola added that his team did well to enter into the Real Madrid box but failed to test Thibaut Courtois enough.
“I don’t feel helpless, we’ve been what we want to be in my teams, we haven’t created chances for Courtois, but we’ve got into the box a lot and just needed one more pass. When they can run, they’re always dangerous,” he claimed.
“Courtois hasn’t had much to do, but we’ve got into the box a lot, we just lacked that little bit extra. And that means we haven’t done too badly.”
Regarding Real Madrid’s tactics, Guardiola said: “In the first 15 minutes, there was no question of changing anything. It was a long ball, the fourth that Courtois was looking for Fede, Nico misjudged it and Fede controlled it brilliantly.
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“Madrid always play well, they’ve always had those transitions. It was my 50th game against them and they’ve always had these strengths. But my feeling is that we didn’t play that badly.”
Continuing, he explained: “They usually play 4-4-2, but today they placed five players in midfield. They stretched the pitch a lot with Vinicius and Brahim Diaz and defended with five, to have more players in midfield.
“We tried to push Ruben and Marc higher, but there were very good movements from Valverde that finished very well. And in situations like that, you have to congratulate them.”
Source: MARCA
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