Chapter 480: Advance to the quarterfinals with a big score!
Although they lost badly at home, Dynamo Kyiv has not completely given up hope of advancing to the quarterfinals.
They arrived in Manchester three days in advance, rented Manchester United's training base, and also inquired for some information about Manchester City from Manchester United, and even asked Manchester United for some experience in dealing with Manchester City.
Obviously, Dynamo Kyiv has ideas about this game.
However, Manchester City was also well prepared. Guardiola rotated the players in advance, allowing most of the main players to get enough rest, specifically to prepare for this game.
Manchester City is determined to win this game.
And they not only have to win, but also win beautifully, to improve the team's condition before the next stage of the Champions League knockout stage.
In this way, Manchester City will not be afraid no matter who they draw in the quarter-finals.
However, Manchester City's luck seems to be a little bad.
Just over 5 minutes into the game, Kompany was injured in a fight.
Guardiola had to passively use a substitution and replace him with Rudiger.
This is not the first time Kompany has been injured. He was injured once in the League Cup final.
Fortunately, it was not serious that time and I recovered after a week of rest.
But this time, he was seriously injured and I'm afraid he won't be able to recover in a short time.
Just 5 minutes into the game, the team lost its captain, which was undoubtedly a huge blow to Manchester City.
Fortunately, Rudiger has grown very fast this season. He has made many appearances in cup games and has come on as a substitute many times in the league. There is no problem with his own condition.
After coming on the pitch, Rudiger quickly found his form and teamed up with Van Dijk to freeze the opponent's forward, making Dynamo Kyiv's plan to take advantage of the chaos to launch a sneak attack fail.
However, Manchester City’s bad luck is not over yet!
In the 23rd minute, Manchester City suffered another heavy blow when another starting central defender Van Dijk injured his knee while competing with Buyarski and fell to the ground.
On the sidelines, Guardiola stood up from the coaching seat when Van Dijk fell to the ground.
No way? Two main central defenders were injured at once. Is that bad luck? Manchester City's team doctor rushed onto the field with a medical kit, checked Van Dijk and communicated with him, then made a substitution gesture.
Although Guardiola was already prepared when Van Dijk fell to the ground.
But when he saw the team doctor's substitution gesture, he couldn't help but curse inwardly and kicked a bottle of mineral water on the sidelines away.
Damn it, Van Dijk is also injured, how can we play this game? He looked back at the Manchester City bench, where there were two defenders sitting.
One is the old veteran Demichelis, whose appearances this season have been significantly reduced.
The other is Kimmich, the young defender who was brought in by Manchester City from Stuttgart.
Kimmich is only 21 years old and plays as a full-back. His height of 1.77 meters is not enough to support him as a center back.
So Guardiola thought about it and finally let Demichelis play.
The opponent lost two key players in succession, both of whom were very crucial central defenders.
This immediately gave Dynamo Kyiv a lot of ideas! They were naturally very clear about the strength of Manchester City's two main central defenders. Kompany was a well-known top central defender in European football and the captain of both Manchester City and the Belgian national team. His personal strength was naturally beyond doubt.
Although Van Dijk is just a young player, the strength and potential he has shown in the center back position makes no one dare to underestimate him.
Some people even predicted that as long as Van Dijk continued his outstanding performance in Manchester City, he would have the hope of competing for the world's number one central defender! The absence of these two defensive stalwarts will inevitably be a huge blow to Manchester City's defense.
If Dynamo Kyiv wants to reverse the situation and advance, they need to score goals. Now that the opponent's defense has undergone major changes, isn't this an opportunity given to them by God?
The people of Kyiv felt that they were blessed by God. They were full of confidence, as if this was their home ground, and launched a fierce attack on Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
Manchester City's morale was indeed affected by the injuries of two players, and their performance in the first half was not good.
But the opponent's arrogant behavior completely infuriated them.
This is Al-Ittihad, a famous devil's home ground in Europe.
This should be the nightmare of all teams, not a place for you guys to show off!
As a result, the Manchester City players, whose fighting spirit was aroused, quickly recovered their condition and began to launch a fierce attack on Dynamo Kyiv.
Seeing this, Guardiola immediately adjusted his tactics, asking the players to speed up the pace of the game and attack the opponent.
Since the defense is not as stable as before, let's use offense to solve the problem! As long as we always score more goals than our opponents, it doesn't matter how many goals we lose! The suddenly accelerated pace caused both sides to make mistakes, and steals, counterattacks, and counter-steals became the main theme on the court.
In this rhythm of attack and defense, both teams had many shooting opportunities.
In the 36th minute of the first half, De Bruyne suddenly took a long shot in front of the penalty area, but because his feet slipped, the ball went slightly wide of the goal.
Two minutes later, Lin Quan's low shot into the penalty area was blocked by the opponent's goalkeeper's legs.
Dynamo Kyiv also had a lot of opportunities. In the 33rd minute of the first half, Dynamo Kyiv made a low pass into the penalty area from the right, Yarmolenko passed it back, and Buyarski's follow-up shot from the middle was blocked by Navas.
Although the score on the field was still 0:0, the tense and passionate confrontation still made the fans who came to the scene and watched the game in front of the TV feel excited.
In an era when utilitarian football is prevalent, ordinary teams usually choose to retreat and defend when facing strong teams, making the game very embarrassing.
There are really fewer and fewer games like this where both teams open up their positions and attack each other head-on, especially when the opponent's strength is far behind Manchester City's, but they still have the courage to take the initiative to launch an attack at Manchester City's home ground.
Regardless of whether Dynamo Kyiv can win in the end, the courage to show the sword alone is worthy of praise!
In fact, the fans are wrong. In their eyes, Dynamo Kyiv is weaker than Manchester City, so they think they are a weak team.
But Dynamo Kyiv is also a well-known and powerful club in the Ukrainian Super League, and they do not consider themselves a weak team.
Both teams attacked fiercely, but unfortunately they were unlucky and neither side was able to score a goal in the first half.
In the second half, both teams showed no intention of stopping.
It is impossible for Manchester City to park the bus at home to face a weak team, and Dynamo Kyiv, which is behind in the score, has only one way out. Since they cannot sit and wait for death, they can only grit their teeth and continue to attack.
So, the two sides continued to attack each other.
In the 58th minute, Manchester City got a good free kick in front of the penalty area. Lin Quan discussed with Kroos and De Bruyne. Kroos stepped aside, and both Lin Quan and De Bruyne stood in front of the football.
The opposing players all sounded the alarm in their hearts, as the free kicks of these two players were very powerful.
De Bruyne's elevator ball is magical, and Lin Quan's free kick is weird and changeable.
No matter who takes the penalty, it will be a huge test for the goalkeeper.
The referee blew the whistle and both players started running at the same time. The difference was that De Bruyne feinted and stepped over the ball without touching it.
The real penalty taker was Lin Quan. With the help of De Bruyne's cover, he aimed at the upper left corner of the goal and chose to shoot directly.
The opponent's goalkeeper used all his strength to jump high, and almost touched the ball with his hand, slightly changing the direction of the football, causing the ball to fly over the crossbar and out of the bottom line.
When Manchester City fans at the Etihad Stadium saw the flight trajectory of the ball, they had already raised their hands to celebrate, but they didn't expect the opponent's goalkeeper to make a magical save and actually blocked the ball.
This made them all sigh and hold their heads in frustration.
The opponent's goalkeeper was also very excited. He was able to save a sure goal from the world's number one player. He could brag about this for the rest of his life!
However, there is a saying that goes "too much joy leads to sorrow". Just when the goalkeeper was feeling proud of himself, Manchester City scored a goal.
In the 59th minute, Manchester City took a corner kick and Lin Quan passed the ball to the back post. Veteran substitute Demichelis overpowered the opponent's defender and headed the ball into the goal with a dragon-like header.
The opponent's goalkeeper had no reaction to the goal. The distance was too close and he had no time to make a save.
After scoring the goal, Demichelis excitedly rushed to the sidelines, kissing the Manchester City logo on his jersey as he ran.
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Demichelis' contract with Manchester City will expire this summer. Although Manchester City is interested in renewing his contract, Demichelis refused.
He has played very little this season, and staying with the team does little to help the team except hindering the development of new players.
In that case, it would be better to leave Manchester City gracefully and go to a better place to retire.
Although Demichelis did not play for Manchester City for a long time, he won most of the honors in his career with Manchester City.
So he still has a lot of feelings for Manchester City.
Considering his salary issues and contribution to the team, he decided to leave Manchester City.
Demichelis feels he still has some gas in the tank and doesn't want to retire too soon.
The bad weather in Manchester is not a very comfortable place for an old player like him with old injuries.
He missed the sunny beaches of the Iberian Peninsula, and his former club Malaga happened to have ideas for him, so Demichelis planned to return to Malaga to retire.
Malaga is ranked in the middle of La Liga, with no European competition tasks and no pressure to avoid relegation.
Playing here, his playing time is guaranteed and there is not too much pressure on performance. For a 36-year-old veteran like him, it is a very good choice.
Therefore, Demichelis' celebration action is actually telling Manchester City fans his choice.
After seeing what Demichelis did, the fans in the stands stood up one by one and spontaneously applauded him.
Three years ago, when Demichelis joined Manchester City at the age of 33, he was questioned by the outside world.
Even many Manchester City fans had opinions about him. These fans believed that he came to Manchester City to retire, and Manchester City at that time lacked major competition honors. They hoped for young and strong players who could build the team.
I don't want this kind of veteran who is about to retire!
However, in his first season with the club, Demichelis changed the way people viewed him.
He is really not here to retire. Although he is old, he is still as good as ever. When Manchester City's defense was weak that year, he made several key saves and saved the team.
Demichelis definitely contributed to Manchester City's two Champions League trophies.
For such a meritorious player, as he is leaving, Manchester City fans are not only reluctant to see him go, but are also sending their blessings.
The first goal came, how far would the second one be? After breaking the deadlock, the players in the frontcourt of Manchester City seemed to have found their target for shooting.
In the 61st minute, Lin Quan passed the ball to Son Heung-min who was on the right in front of the penalty area. The latter made a powerful diagonal shot in the penalty area and the ball hit the left post and bounced into the net.
2:0!
The total score became 5:1!
Manchester City secured the victory and also got a ticket to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Dynamo Kyiv still did not give up the attack despite falling behind by a large margin. Even though they knew there was no hope of advancing, they did not want to admit defeat.
In the 82nd minute, Dynamo Kyiv had the best chance.
Rudiger made a defensive mistake, allowing the opponent's forward to turn around and have a one-on-one opportunity.
However, Navas made a great save and blocked the opponent's shot from close range.
This save completely crushed the opponent's morale. In the following ten minutes, the Dynamo Kyiv players never found any chance to threaten Manchester City's goal.
In the end, the score was fixed at 2:0, Manchester City defeated their opponent twice and advanced to the quarterfinals.
This game was not the focus of this round, but the number of viewers watching this game was very large, only slightly less than the game between Barcelona and Arsenal at home. It was the second most watched game in this round.
The reason why so many spectators watched this game was entirely because both teams played offensive football, which made the game extremely entertaining.
According to post-match technical statistics, both sides only completed 39 shots in the entire game.
Manchester City contributed 21 of them, while their opponents completed 18.
Judging from the number of shots, the two teams are evenly matched and the gap is not that big.
However, in terms of the number of shots on target, Manchester City had a total of 8 shots on target, while their opponents only had 4, a full double difference.
This also proves that although Manchester City lacked two defensive generals, their defense in this game was still quite good.
Although the opponent had many shots, most of them failed to pose a threat, and the offense was lackluster.
In terms of ball possession, Manchester City's advantage is not that big, with a possession rate of only 52%, while the opponent's possession rate is 48%.
This is a quite remarkable number. Few teams, even top teams, have such a small lag in ball possession when facing Manchester City.
From these data, it can be seen that Dynamo Kyiv is indeed not a weak team!
It's a pity that they were unlucky and met Manchester City.
If we meet other weaker teams, maybe we still have a chance.
(End of this chapter)