on wedenesday man city played PSG in the uefa champions league s/f . now nobody will even question pep gaurdiola because he is the master of tactical games . whatever he does is just beyong question by ordinary people . i want to ask this did he played a negative formation . its not about him playing de bryune in the no.9 position cause he had done this before but it is the kind of game that they played . it doesnt matter who plays where but who was there to be in the box . who was supposed to be at the end of the crosses . the thing was there was nobody who trying to get in the box .whatever the play was that was outside the box . doesnt matter how much you dominate the possession but if you cannot threaten the opposition goal then that possession and domination has no meaning at all . ciritics might say that man city scored two goals but both those goals were on free kick and a cross not by interplay . other than a foden solo run which he made on his own there was not a single shot on goal by man city. they were outplayed in the first half . they came back in the second half and i would credit them for that cause PSG should have had some confidence in them and coach should had calmed them down . they lost that plot and are down from the first leg but they are not out and if they can play the way in the first half of this tie then i think they are still in the tie and it has many a twist and turns and if gaurdiola keeps on playing negative then i think that he may come to regret about it .
the game started with psg playing a 4-4-2 formation with mbappe and neymar upfront . while man city started the game with 4-3-3 formation . gaurdiola selected cancelo as the left back while he has two left backs at his disposal . the reason of playing cancelo as the left back is that he is right footed and him facing di maria who is left footed makes the match up even cause di maria likes to cut inside . cancelo being right footed as his strong on di maria's strong side so he can very well counter di maria . the game started with similar pace with both team trying to dominate whenever they had the ball and press upfield when they loose the ball and if the opposition can beat the press then sit back in shape and try to absorb the offense . there is definite reason why neymar was coming deep to help out his side move the ball upfield . neymar is very good on the ball and even when pressed can dribble the ball out of the press and can really open the opposition up . while mbappe has the pace and man city were scared of it and they were playing and not letting have any space behind the back four to exploit . so man city were stretched vertically . in the first half man city were not trying to close down neymar they were letting come deep and have the possession and he was causing all sort of problems for man city . veratti and di maria were coming inside which was allowing the fullbacks to come forward and cause many problems to man city defense because they were getting stretched .
i had seen people talking about man city and psg's press . to be honest most of the teams are very well prepared against the press they can be pressed on one move but the managers make the necessary positional changes to beat the press .when any team gets pressed they just move the ball from one flank to other . so even in this game whenever teams were spread they would just spread the ball and try to stretch the game and get some time and space on the ball . in the first half man city were playing deep and were getting torn apart by psg . if somebody watches the first half of this game then the interplay between neymar and mbaape and other psg players was like pro's playing against school children . the only thing lacking and for which they must be cursing was the finishing which even they lacked in the bayern game . they were just causing man city from all sides . i think psg would score more than two in the first half and the tie would be over .
i dont know told this but i think in the second half and i would credit this to the commentators who made the right spot . man city started to play more compact . they started to play more upfield and started to press and started denying the space that neymar was getting . the game changed when de bruyne scored of the equalizer for man city . city scored the second just minutes later and psg started to chase the game and in that they lost the concentration and discipline that is required to chase the game and they lost .
the most important thing that i said in the first para was that whether gaurdiola played negative . man city had three in the middle and three upfront with debruyne in the middle . i dont mind de bruyne not playing as an out and out forward . but then there has to somebody who has to at the end of the cross in the box . but then if gaurdiola doesnt wants it then its his choice. but then there are other alternatives in opening the opposition defense where on you can have a very good interplay and open the opposition or midfielders can go beyond the striker or that the wide players can make diagonal runs in the box but the problem was that none of this was happening . they were having possession but the movement was all outside of the box . even when the ball was pass wide there was nobody inside the box for the cross . there are no good interplay nor were they taking shots from outside of the box . other than the two goals man city didnt present with any threat to the psg goal . i would like to commend the commentators that they were calling for a proper no.9 to be in the match or they wanted gundogan to go beyond de bruyne who was dropping deep . there were no diagonal runs by mahrez or foden . they were staying wide trying to stretch the defense but there was no great interplay trying to bring the ball inside . i dont think that man city were ever threatning in the match . it doesnt matters whether they dominated the possession but they just didnt threatened psg goal . i think the tie is very much alive and hope to see a good match .
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