Manchester City outclassed Bayern Munich (3-0) on Tuesday on their lawn and set foot in the last four of the Champions League, with a goal and an assist from the inevitable Erling Haaland. After an intense tactical battle for the first 45 minutes, Manchester City cracked the defense of Bayern Munich where Dayot Upamecano was feverish, to take a nice advantage in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Neither this victory nor a possible qualification will erase the memory of the Champions League final lost in 2021 against Tuchel’s Chelsea, but Pep Guardiola consolidated his ascendancy with this seventh victory in eleven confrontations with his rival. And what a victory! By doing without Thomas Müller, Tuchel had bet on speed but the great discipline in City’s defensive withdrawal prevented almost any rapid transition.
Upamecano disappointing
And on the attacks placed, Manchester managed to always have a defender on the road to the Bavarians, like Ruben Dias’ heroic counter on a strike from Jamal Musiala from the penalty spot (25th). Defensively, the challenge was obviously to neutralize the Haaland threat. The daunting task of scoring it fell to Dayot Upamecano and the Frenchman returned a disappointing copy.
From the 5th, he had been too easily eliminated by his direct opponent, who however had not framed his shot. But it was especially in the second half that he seemed to lose his lucidity.
Rodri’s masterpiece
In the 50th, hesitating too much between a pass to the goalkeeper and a clearance, he had lost the ball at the entrance to his area, creating a moment of panic without consequence (50th). Then, a new hesitation in the 70th, under the pressure of Jack Grealish, had allowed the Englishman to close for Haaland who had the intelligence to prick his center at the far post for the head of Bernardo Silva launched which catapulted the ball in the net for the 2-0.
Before that, Haaland had already been threatening by pressing Yann Sommer on his line (14th) or at the exit of a nice combination, but crushing his shot too much (22nd). The reward for Mancunian domination had however come in the 27th minute with a superb clearance dribble from Rodri from 25 meters to avoid the return of Musiala, followed by a wonderful shot wrapped with his “bad” foot, the left, which ended his perfect parabola in the right corner of Sommer (1-0, 27th) for the Spaniard’s first Champions League goal.
Powerless on goal, the Swiss goalkeeper on the other hand made an incredible reflex foot save when he was on the ground after an aerial duel with Jack Grealish, to prevent Ilkay Gündogan from doubling the lead, seven minutes later.
Haaland’s altruism rewarded
Haaland’s 2-0 selflessness was finally rewarded when a long cross was deflected from a header by John Stones in the run from the Norwegian who netted his 45th goal of the season from close range, a tally he never had never reached (3-0, 77th). Without an excellent Sommer in the cages in front of Ruben Dias (57th) or a header from Rodri (86th), the slate could even have been even heavier for the Germans who were completely overwhelmed at the end of the match.
Tuchel will have a huge job to convince them that qualification remains possible on the return, especially since they have created very few clear chances, even if Ederson shone twice: on a strike from the former home, Leroy Sané, who had taken advantage of a poor alignment of John Stones (49th), before trying his luck from the same position as Rodri on his goal (54th). Scoring three goals against the sky blue defense would already be quite a feat, but doing so without conceding would be almost a miracle.