Manchester City gained a narrow advantage over Atletico Madrid with a hard fought 1-0 success over the La Liga outfit.
This was the first encounter between the champions of England and Spain and the Spaniards were fresh from knocking out City rivals Manchester United from the competition just 20 days ago.
All three of Atletico’s victories in this season’s Champions League have come away from home whilst City have not lost at home in Europe for three and a half years, but perhaps more importantly Atleti have been victorious in ten of their 13 two-legged knockout contests against English teams.
As the first half ended the Atletico fans were in fine voice having seen their team enter the break scoreless despite City dominating their opponents yet without testing keeper Jan Oblak.
With the visitors defending in depth and rarely posing an attacking threat the hosts struggled to break them down not helped by their slow build up play which enabled the Spaniards to regroup on these rare occasions they gave away possession,
City were restricted to blocked efforts from Joao Cancelo and Kevin de Bruyne and a couple of penalty appeals when Bernard Silva and Raheem Sterling looked to have been bundled over. De Bruyne had also sent over some dangerous crosses but overall Atletico looked comfortable at the back.
City had an early second half chance through Ilkay Gundogan but after giving the ball away almost got caught out on the break as Antoine Griezmann raced clear. Then another Atletico break saw Marcos Llorente’s shot easily saved as the Spaniards finally showed some attacking intent.
De Bruyne almost broke the deadlock with a free kick but Oblak saved low down. Atletico were now going down easily in an effort to break the rhythm of the game and on 60 minutes boss Diego Simeone introduced three substitutes.
A corner saw Aymeric Laporte’s free header sail narrowly over the Atletico bar before another penalty shout for a challenge on Sterling as the City faithful began to get restless.
But it was substitute Phil Foden who brought the game to life with a delightful through ball for De Bruyne to open the scoring on 70 minutes. He almost doubled the lead with ten minutes remaining but the Belgiums shot was blocked on the line by Stefan Savic.
The game threatened to boil over as Jack Grealish was fouled then had the ball kicked into his face as he lay on the ground by Angel Correa. In injury time Grealish was again fouled which lead to some off the ball incidents before the final whistle brought an end to any more unpleasantness.
Atletico were intent on keeping the goal difference to one by any means necessary and much as City tried they failed to add to their tally and take a narrow lead into the second leg which remains finely poised.
Full Time
Man City: 1 (De Bruyne 70)
Atletico Madrid: 0
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