Manchester City 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb: 3 Reasons why Pep Guardiola's side won the game

Modified Oct 01, 2019 22:58 GMT

Manchester City v Dinamo Zagreb: Group C - UEFA Champions League

Manchester City welcomed Dinamo Zagreb to the Etihad on Tuesday night for their UEFA Champions League group stage game. The Croatian side was top of Group C ahead of the game, by virtue of a superior goal difference. Tuesday night promised a fiery encounter, as two teams of very similar philosophy faced each other on the field.

Zagreb was second in the Croatian First Football League table, a point behind leaders Hajduk Split having played one game less. Most importantly, the Croatian side was coming into the game having scored 11 goals in their last 2 games in all competitions.

Manchester City were not doing too bad themselves. The Citizens were second in the Premier League behind Liverpool, but had scored 27 goals in their 7 games in the league so far. However, Pep Guardiola knew that his Croatian opponents were no pushovers and he named his team accordingly.

Manchester City Starting XI: Ederson; Joao Cancelo, Fernandinho, Nicolas Otamendi, Benjamin Mendy; Ilkay Gundogan, Rodrigo Hernandez, David Silva; Riyad Mahrez, Sergio Aguero, Bernardo Silva.

Manchester City started the game on fire but lacked precision in attack. Despite spending much of the first 45 minutes in the opposition half, the reigning Premier League champions failed to find a breakthrough and the game went into the break with the score 0-0. Raheem Sterling came on in place of Bernardo Silva 10 minutes into the second half and the Englishman gave his team the lead in the 66th minute. Phil Foden, another second-half substitute, made it 2-0 for City in injury time and Pep Guardiola’s team went on to gather all 3 points. Here are 3 reasons why Manchester City won the game.

#3 Lack of attacking threat from Dinamo Zagreb

The Croatian side was pegged back for much of the game and had little threat going forward on the night. Dinamo Zagreb failed to put any pressure on the City defence and their only real chances arrived from set-pieces.

Perhaps Nenad Bjelica’s side would have been better advised to stretch the City side on the counter, but the Croatians failed to take advantage of the situation and were toothless in attack.

As a result, the City defence was untroubled for the majority of the game and the home side was able to push men forward without any worries. This ultimately helped City win the game.

#2 Manchester City dominated the midfield

As is the norm nowadays, Pep Guardiola’s side dictated the game once again. Manchester City took control of the midfield early on the night and did not let go of the reins for the entire game. City ended the night with 81% possession and attempted 818 passes with 88% accuracy. Interestingly, the home side completed around 600 passes more than the visitors, which highlighted the level of dominance City had in the game! Pep Guardiola’s side also had 73 touches of the ball in the opponent box, compared to Zagreb’s 2! Only some lacklustre finishing stopped the Premier League side from winning by a bigger margin.

Key to City’s midfield dominance was Rodri, who ran the show for the Citizens on the night. The Spaniard attempted a match-high 126 passes with a 92% pass success rate and dictated the tempo of the game for the home side. Ilkay Gundogan was also crucial in the centre of the park, with the German midfielder registering 120 passes with 94% accuracy and also recording 2 key passes in the game.

#1 Substitutes do the job for Pep Guardiola

After watching his side dominate the entire first half yet fail to score a goal, Pep Guardiola would have been a frustrated man. The Spaniard kept his team unchanged at the start of the second half but knew soon enough that his side lacked the killer edge in the final third. Guardiola refused to wait longer and made his most important decision of the game – replacing Bernardo Silva with Raheem Sterling.

The Englishman had an instant impact on the game, scoring after 10 minutes. From the edge of the opposition box, Rodrigo played a pass to Mahrez out on the left and the Algerian sent a low cross across the face of the goal. Raheem Sterling’s movement and alertness saw him get ahead of Emir Dilaver and the Englishman scored to put his team ahead.

In the first minute of injury time, Guardiola replaced David Silva with Phil Foden and it turned out to be another masterstroke. At the end of another City counter-attack in the dying minutes of injury time, Raheem Sterling set up Foden to score City’s second of the game, wrapping up a good night’s work.

Edited by Sai Teja