In Manchester, Madrid defended with the whole team, but still lost (0:1).

De Bruyne smashed Simeone's wall. City beat Atlético

Before the game, Pep Guardiola threatened to release 12 players to face Atlético Madrid. No, seriously, that's what he said: “In the Champions League, I'm always smart with tactics. And that is why I have good results. I like to be smart and come up with stupid tactics. Before the match I will be illuminated, and there will be something incredible. We'll play 12 people.

Obviously, this is sarcasm. The head coach of Manchester City was ironic about the fact that until last season, the “citizens” could not pass the quarter-final stage under him. In some playoff games, it really seemed that Pep was in vain reinventing the wheel and his own players did not understand the updated requirements of the coach. But, firstly, the curse of the quarter-final has already been lifted. Secondly, it was in this meeting that Guardiola should have shown his tactical genius.

Atlético are the most defensive top club in Europe. Diego Simeone, for more than ten years of leadership of the Madrid team, has built an ideal system. You may not like her – and many fans criticize the mattress on social networks – but this strategy is effective.

How to defeat one of the strongest teams on the planet away or at least not let it win? Simeone's recipe: frankly park the bus. The Argentine was never shy at all and did not worry about the opinions of others, and now he was thinking only about himself and his team.

The match looked like City had 12 people on the field. Atlético lined up in a 5-5-0 formation. And this is not hyperbole: in the first half without the ball (that is, three-quarters of the time), Griezmann and Joao Felix went to the flanks. True, the front line of defense did not always keep the structure, and the central midfielders tried to pull out when the ball was close to them. But this does not change the essence: although formally Atletico came out with two attackers, in reality they turned out to be part of a gigantic defensive doctrine.

We can say that Simeone provoked this and the abolition of the away goal rule. We already saw a similar picture two months ago in the first match of the 1/8 finals of PSG – Real Madrid, but now another team from the Spanish capital has acted even deeper. City did not even try to open the defense through the center, as it is useless, so all the time the ball went to one of the edges. True, the hosts could not create anything dangerous from there either, so before the break Atlético's plan worked perfectly.

In the second half, Guardiola moved Sterling to the center, and Griezmann at least began to represent the front line of defense – and Atlético's formation began to resemble 5-4-1. But this did not affect the course of the meeting. City still had 75 percent possession of the ball, and Guardiola was probably catching déjà vu from 2016 when he lost to Atlético Madrid in the Champions League semi-final in a similar situation at the head of Bayern.

Here, Madrid could also score – for example, at the beginning of the second half, Griezmann ran dangerously towards Ederson's goal, but they managed to stop him, and Llorente even hit the target in the 51st minute. But it is obvious that Manchester City was closer to the goal. And, of course, he deserved to win.

Guardiola's team didn't play perfectly. There are too few original actions at the gates of others, and the most dangerous moment for a long time was De Bruyne's free-kick. Simeone tried to confuse Guardiola with a mass replacement of attacking players in the middle of the second half, but the Spanish coach did not fall for it. And he himself made a productive rearrangement.

Phil Fowden is the man who let City get their way. The Englishman entered the field in the 68th minute and almost immediately brought De Bruyne to a goal with a tricky pass. A little later, he also created another moment when Savic took the ball out of an empty net. The Englishman generally flourished the game and once again proved why he is considered a future world-class star.

In the end, Atletico already began to get nervous and provoke the hosts, but the guests did not score a single goal. 1-0 – Guardiola is unlikely to be very pleased with the result, but it's still better than a draw.