De Bruyne Rescues Man City, Liverpool Punish Benfica
06 April, 2022
Manchester City 1-0 Atletico Madrid
Manchester City battled effortlessly to register a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid in the UEFA Champions League quarter-final first-leg on Tuesday.
John Stones, Bernardo Silva and Riyad Mahrez were recalled by the Citizens from their Premier League win at Burnley on Saturday, while Koke and Felipe came in for Atletico.
City struggled to settle into rhythm in the opening stages and had a header from Aymeric Laporte following a corner-kick and a snap attempt by Kevin De Bruyne as their only threats. Atletico continued to play on the back-foot and left the Citizens to pick passes and orchestrate openings which Joao Cancelo and De Bruyne particularly failed to utilise. The Citizens exerted the same intensity from the first half into the second spell and nearly had the lead through a clever shot in the area from Ilkay Gundogan.
With Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus introduced by City, the breakthrough followed with 20 minutes to go as a pass from Foden saw De Bruyne collect to finish emphatically.
Atletico continued to find the going tough in the closing exchanges as the Citizens hoped for a second, but it finished 1-0 in the end to the English champions.
Benfica 1-3 Liverpool
Liverpool picked up a crucial 3-1 first-leg victory over Benfica in their last eight UEFA Champions League clash in Lisbon on Tuesday evening.
Notably, the Premier League giants restored Trent Alexander-Arnold, Luis Diaz and Sadio Mane from the league win over Watford with Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino on the bench.
Liverpool broke the deadlock in the first 20 minutes when a corner-kick from Andrew Robertson fell all the way for Ibrahima Konate, who made no mistake and headed home.
A second for the visitors arrived from poor possession by Adel Taraabt which Alexander-Arnold obtained and squared to Diaz who then picked out Mane for the Reds cushion strike.
Benfica received a lifeline two minutes following halftime when Darwin Nunez attacked a low cross right of the area and fired into the bottom corner.
Then a good chance for Benfica came which Everton Soares got onto on the edge of the area and forced a save from Alisson Becker, as Jordan Henderson, Jota and Firmino entered at the other end.
The Reds made sure of the win in the last two minutes when Diaz rounded Nunez from a pass by Naby Keita and slotted into an empty net.
Source: www.soccerladuma.co.za
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