MANCHESTER, United Kingdom — Atletico Madrid put on a Diego Simeone master lesson at the Etihad Stadium for nearly 70 minutes. Then there was Phil Foden.
The 21-year-old England midfielder came on in the 68th minute, and Manchester City were up 1-0 less than 90 seconds later, on their way to a perfect start to a 10-day span that may define their season.
The Premier League match against Liverpool is on Sunday, followed by the return leg in Madrid on Tuesday, and the FA Cup semifinal against Liverpool at Wembley on Saturday. Foden made his case to start them all in just 20 minutes here.
He made such a difference in the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal that after the final whistle blew, goal scorer Kevin De Bruyne ran over to give him a hug and a handshake. City might not have found a way past Simeone's tight game plan if Foden had sat on the bench, and the tie would have been on a knife's edge heading to Spain next week.
"It's very difficult to find spaces in a difficult game against a tough opponent," Guardiola said later. "They defend so brilliantly, so compactly and so deeply, and we need talent in tiny places like Phil has showed." Because they are top-tier players, they may punish you on the counterattack. Phil possesses a unique quality. His greetings are always friendly, and he maintains his cool when assisting Kevin.
"It's a good result; regrettably, we had one or two more chances towards the end, but 1-0 to head to Madrid is a good result." To be honest, I didn't expect to win by three or four goals."
By Simeone's design, games against Atletico are frequently decided by razor-thin margins, but Foden is capable of threading a perfect pass through even the tightest of spaces.
"We tried to keep it tight and counterattack as much as possible. We couldn't hurt them in the first half since they didn't get a shot on target "After the game, Simeone stated. "We had some more dangerous counterattacks in the second half, and then they scored. Both [coaches] were looking at what he had to go through in a very tactical game."
On the touchline, Guardiola and Simeone wore the same long black coat to protect themselves from the rain in Manchester, but their footballing tactics could not have been more dissimilar. For lengthy stretches, Atletico's red and white jerseys were positioned in two lines in front of Jan Oblak's goal, while Guardiola spent the first half encouraging his centre-back, John Stones, to advance higher up the ground. City enjoyed 80 percent possession after 20 minutes, however Guardiola appeared to be well aware of the menace lurking beneath the Spanish champions' low block.
