That there is a tie without the Bernabéu and another with him is the fuel that transports Madrid against Manchester City, which he missed the sentence at the Etihad for neglecting the rearguard and today he is exposed to the waves of a stadium where nothing is impossible. The public is the center of the scene. Ancelotti has prepared a game to keep him hooked for the 90 minutes and whatever comes. And Guardiola expects that connection to be broken soon. (follow the match live on As.com).
Madrid was always a team of footballers and City pretends to be the work of a coach. Today the weight of one and the other will have to be seen. Guardiola’s teamsix years after its arrival, offers all its features: 60.3% possession of the ball in the Champions League (in the Premier it is close to 68%), a superior presence in the opposition field (only in the eleven games of this European Cup has he taken 24 more corners than Madrid), the highest number of attacks in the competition (756 vs. 586 for today’s rival). In short, a highly territorial and choral team. Six of his players have already scored more than 12 goals on the course.
Many of City’s strengths are not found in the Madrid squad but, in return, Guardiola does not have two factors as unbalanced as Benzema and Vinicius. Only for them the Ancelotti team comes alive to this match. The Frenchman has scored a goal in two out of three shots on goal: 14 goals in 21 attempts. All in ten games. That nuclear capacity is not within City’s reach. Nor the speed of Vinicius, top dribbler and second assistant in the tournament. Today he will be more closely watched, because Guardiola recovers the injured Cancelo, and perhaps his natural sentinel, Walker, who has not played since the Wanda duel.
the prodigious belgian
De Bruyne It is the differential fact of the City. He has scored fifteen goals (he is one shy of his best record) and has given 12 assists. The data, as reflected in Olocip’s artificial intelligence study, reveals that he is in the best year of his career in offensive performance and not so much in game construction.
Kevin de Bruyne, in the last City training session.
REUTERS
De Bruyne was a child prodigy, but excessively introverted. He arrived at Genk at the age of 14 and spent the first season in a pension. In the second, the club decided to pay for his stay with a foster family who rejected him a year later: “They told my mother that he was too quiet.” The club then decided not to cover the expense of another season with a family. De Bruyne was overcome by indignation and turned it into energy. In his first game with the Genk second team, he came off the bench after the break and scored five goals in a while: “I had so much fire inside me…”. A few days later, at the age of 16, she made her first team debut.
Chelsea signed him at 21 and loaned him to Werder Bremen in 2012. A year later he returned to put himself under the command of Mourinho. He played two of the first four games, disappeared later and lowered his arms: “I made mistakes, I was naive.” When he asked the Portuguese for explanations, he took out a piece of paper and read: “One assist, zero goals, ten recoveries…”. And then he recited data from Willian, Óscar, Mata, Schürrle, all with better records. “There I felt that the club did not want me and I asked them to sell me,” he recalls. In winter he left transferred to Wolfsburg for 20 million. The following year City paid 76 for him. Mourinho explained three years later: “He wasn’t ready to compete, he trained poorly.” Guardiola, who already met him there, sees him as “one of the best in the world”. “Pep and I have a similar mentality, although he is more passionate. He has twice the mental stress than the players because he is not only interested in winning; he is looking for perfection”, acknowledged the Belgian.
De Bruyne is one of the three footballers he booked Guardiola against Leeds. The other two, Mahrez and Bernardo Silva, are taken for granted. Like the two who didn’t finish the game, Rodri and Foden. The square that remains free from the forward defense is between Gündogan and Gabriel Jesús, a white nightmare.
Valverde has advantage
In Madrid there is only one position in dispute. With Nacho as a substitute for Alaba, who is on the list as an entertainer, Ancelotti must choose between Valverde and Rodrygo. That the first did not play a minute against Espanyol is a significant fact. This time Ancelotti will be able to count on Casemiro, the fang of his midfield. The team, at the Etihad, made only five fouls, the first in the 40th minute. In the League, their average is 11. An aggressive point, which the Bernabéu will demand, may be essential.
Benzema, together with Valverde, during Madrid training.
Realmadrid.com
City have played 54 games this year and have lost only seven, but two were in the Champions League, against PSG and Leipzig. And he also deserved it against Atlético. He has also missed three titles. Something similar can be said of Madrid. Of their eight defeats in 50 games, half came in the Champions League. Two, against Chelsea and City itself, are the most recent.
Ancelotti’s plan will be to score first and then take advantage of the kickbackwhich so far has been less than it seems. Only 11% of the goals came like this. The rest of the work corresponds to a Bernabéu that, as Benzema announced, is a magic box.