Foden, De Bruyne magic breaks Atletico resistance to hand Man City crucial CL advantage

Phil Foden and Kevin de Bruyne combined as Manchester City secured a 1-0 first-leg advantage in their Champions League quarter-final tie with Atletico Madrid.

There was a debate over whether Atletico would abandon their usual style of defending deep and avoid City dominating and eventually cracking the code.

However, Atletico stuck to their plan and showed no signs of faltering. In fact, goalkeeper Jan Oblak did not have to make a single save in a goalless first half.

But, Pep Guardiola’s side stuck to their task and Foden made an almost instant impact to set De Bruyne up.

Atletico got forward more after that, but they go into the second leg in Madrid a goal down.

Four minutes in, Diego Simeone’s side showed their attacking plan. Marcos Llorente broke away on the counter-attack and drew a foul from Nathan Ake.

However, City dominated the half, finishing with six attempts – all off target – and 70 per cent possession.

Joao Cancelo and Kevin de Bruyne had deflected shots. But, City also failed to truly hurt Atletico from dead-ball situations, Aymeric Laporte heading a corner wide.

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City subsequently looked to be neat with intricate passes into the Atletico box. De Bruyne and Raheem Sterling had penalty shouts waved away by referee Istvan Kovacs and then VAR.

The visitors’ deep defending made attacks a rarity and they struggled to find composure. Joao Felix span away from his City markers but only released an offside Llorente.

Atletico started the second half with the bigger threat. Llorente got in behind Cancelo and was onside this time, forcing the first save from City goalkeeper Ederson.

However, City hit back with a teasing Sterling cross which nobody attacked. Then, De Bruyne’s free-kick had too much power, but Oblak cleared after spilling his save attempt.

De Bruyne beats Atletico resistance

And it was De Bruyne who finally opened the scoring for Man City after 70 minutes.

It was substitute Phil Foden who got a magical assist after only one minute and 20 seconds on the pitch, sliding De Bruyne in amid four Atletico markers for the Belgian to finish.

Atletico responded by throwing men forward, but substitute Matheus Cunha could not have the same impact as Foden as he failed to bring down Sime Vrsaljko’s ball.

City sensed more opportunities up the other end and Foden was at the heart of them. The 21-year-old dribbled past three opponents and fed Bernardo Silva, who gave it to De Bruyne.

However, Stefan Savic produced a fantastic last-ditch block on the line to keep it at 1-0.

Foden and De Bruyne looked to combine again, but the end result was a goal-kick and City in the end settled for one goal.

The second leg comes three days after their massive Premier League title showdown with Liverpool at the Etihad Stadium.

The Reds were also in Champions League quarter-final action on Tuesday. Jurgen Klopp’s side secured a 3-1 win over Benfica in Lisbon ahead of their second leg at Anfield next Wednesday.