Manchester City: the step was too high. Sport

Manchester City, too superior, inflicted a new defeat on theOlympic Marseille (3-0), Tuesday for the 2nd day of Champions League. Qualification looks bad. And eleven defeats in a row in the Champions League … Ferran Torres (18 ‘), Ilkay Gundogan (76’) and Raheem Sterling (81 ‘) materialized the 90 minutes of domination of the men of Pep Guardiola.

Playing without Dimitri Payet and Dario Benedetto hasn’t changed anything. Beaten six days earlier in Piraeus by Olympiakos (1-0), OM remain at zero points. Marseille are very badly embarked on their Group C. He can still hope that City beat everyone to return to the race, but the match in Porto next Tuesday is the one “Last chance”, said Florian Thauvin on RMC Sports. The Villas-Boas heart club has unlocked its counter against Mathieu Valbuena’s team (1-0) in the other match of the group.

The Marseille technician had chosen a defensive pattern in 3-5-2, without Payet, in small form. But the Portuguese coach was not helped by the excitement of his players. Rongier was disastrous, Michaël Cuisance lost a lot of balls, Florian Thauvin made no difference … The speed option with Nemanja Radonjic in attack, rather than Benedetto still dry, in duet with Thauvin, has nothing given either.

Rongier’s mistake

Only Boubacar Kamara survived, sharp and daring, but terribly alone. Payet and Benedetto entered at the end of the match, without changing anything (78 ‘). If the score is deserved, Marseille can still feed regrets, because if Manchester had the possession as expected, in proportions of two-thirds-one-third, its opportunities came from errors of the Marseille defense.

Completely dominated in the first quarter of an hour, OM logically conceded a goal, on a coarse ball from Valentin Rongier, a pass in their own unstable area for Duje Caleta-Car. Kevin De Bruyne, captain on Tuesday night, wrapped the gift and gave it to Ferran Torres. And he had a choice: there were three City players ahead of Mandanda at that time …

Another mistake could have folded the game earlier. A control from Leo Balerdi gave a goal ball to Oleksandr Zichenko, whose cross shot hit the outside of the post (35). The gap was too clear, sometimes embarrassing, between the two teams. Each ball seemed difficult for the Marseillais to play, very embarrassed by the high and aggressive pressing from Manchester.

“70 m” from the opponent’s goal

And when they got one, it was left 70 meters to go towards the opposing goal, regretted Thauvin. Unfortunately we did not manage to set up what we wanted. It’s another level you have to be honest,he confessed again. We have to learn from these matches, we have to improve. It’s a defeat that is difficult to concede tonight because we take three goals. The second period was better because we managed to create more situations, when we went on the counter-attack we were more in their camp. After that we did not manage to realize our opportunities. But when we spend the whole match 30m from our goal and there are 70m to go to score, it’s hard to have the legs. We will have to progress in the use of the ball. (On the Porto match) It’s the last chance match, we have to do better, it’s the Champions League, it’s been 7 years since we took part, we must all learn together

The first intrusion of OM into the Mancunian area dates from the 17th minute, and the first strike of the 42nd, a Radonjic shot without danger for Ederson. The Whites were a little more valiant in the second half hour of play. Thauvin then pushed Ederson to concede a corner on a long and powerful strike (55), that was about it for the vice-champions of France. ..

At the end of the meeting, City gave more scope to the score. A sharp pass from Gundogan to Raheem Sterling’s header gave Phil Foden 2-0, then Sterling himself closed the scoring on a pass from De Bruyne, thrown by Ryad Mahrez, who had just returned. City won their first match in France, where they had little success.

Guardiola: “We haven’t suffered much”

For a qualification against Paris SG (2-2- / 1-0 in the 2016 C1 quarter-finals), the Sky Blues had two eliminations against Ligue 1 clubs, Monaco (5-3 / 1-3) and Lyon (3-1 in quarterfinals 2020). After a sluggish start in the Premier League (8 points out of 15), here they are on the road to 8th in C1, a trophy after which they are still chasing.

Villas-Boas has clearly lost his first face-to-face with Guardiola, which he considers inspiring. We will have to catch up on a field more commensurate with this OM, Friday against Lens, if the Covid which strikes the Blood and Gold allows it. We played a good game, we adapted well to their five-a-side defense, it was difficult to find spaces,welcomed the Spanish coach. It’s a good result for us, and above all a good performance, we didn’t concede a lot of chances and we created some for ourselves. We did not suffer much, just the first quarter of an hour of the second half, it was Marseille’s credit. We can play five behind and be offensive, they weren’t very offensive because our pressing bothered them, we didn’t allow them to be more offensive.

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