As usual, Pep Guardiola’s tactics, especially in the Champions League arena, are always a hot topic of discussion.
Real and Man City had a dramatic 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final. Vinicius Junior opened the scoring with a beautiful long shot before Kevin De Bruyne equalized with a “cannonball” in the second half.
Pep Guardiola’s side will play the second leg at the Etihad Stadium next Wednesday. A 1-1 draw against Real is not a bad result, but Guardiola’s decisions in the game caused many people to question.
The Spaniard did not make a change, despite Erling Haaland playing weakly against Real defenders David Alaba and Antonio Ruediger, while on the Green Man’s bench, there was still Julian Alvarez. very energetic.
Man City legend, former striker Sergio Aguero expressed his displeasure with his compatriots: “What I don’t understand is why he didn’t throw Julian (Alvarez) on the pitch… I wonder, but it’s Pep. He’s like no other. If it were me, I would use Julian in almost every game, because we need his dynamism and passion.”
Man City fans are also confused by Guardiola’s determination not to substitute.
One Twitter user wrote: “Once again, the game went on for 93 minutes with no substitutions. What does Pep Guardiola want to prove?”.
A second tweeted sarcastically: “A lot of changes were ‘made’ by Pep Guardiola tonight.”
The third person agrees with Aguero: “I wonder why Pep Guardiola didn’t make a substitution today. Especially why he didn’t bring in Alvarez today.”
The difference between Pep Guardiola has sometimes caused Man City trouble, especially in the Champions League arena in recent seasons, but his excellence cannot be denied. That was shown right at the beginning of the match at the Bernabeu when The Citizens played completely overwhelmingly against the home team Real Madrid.
The defending Premier League team had a very impressive performance in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final this morning (May 10). However, despite creating great pressure and having many dangerous passes, Man City still could not find the net of Thibaut Courtois, before De Bruyne’s equalizer.
Rarely do people see Los Blancos being dominated by opponents at home like that. The Champions League champions have a penchant for overpowering their opponents, especially in La Liga, but in the opening minutes of the game against Man City, it was they who had to chase the ball.
A statistic published on Twitter by the Squawka Live account on Twitter shows that Guardiola’s players completely outperformed the opponent in the first 15 minutes of the game when controlling the ball by 70% and touching the ball 14 times in the Real box.
Perhaps apart from Man City, it is difficult for any team to play so overwhelmingly at Real’s home ground, not even letting Los Blancos touch the ball even once in the penalty area during that time.