After knocking out Wigan in the FA Cup to reach the semi-finals, Manchester City welcomed the second leg against Barcelona. In the second leg, Manchester City continued the tactics of the first leg, with Toure playing as a midfielder to limit Barcelona's midfielder Xavi, only to replace Godin, who was red carded and suspended, by Sako. Barcelona made a change, Martino unexpectedly pushed Cesc Fabregas to the center of the field, and let Messi drop back to free Messi. However, Li Chengfeng will not let Messi go, he arranged for Vidal and Fernandinho to partner in the double back to limit Messi's insertion.

At the beginning of the game, Barcelona continued their usual possession tactics, using short passes and cooperation to attack on the ground. Manchester City, on the other hand, used aggressive running and ferocious pressing to limit Barcelona's passing and cutting organization, and the attack focused on two wings, Reus and Neymar are both superstars with excellent speed awareness and technical coordination, plus the world's top striker Suarez, this combination is also one of the best in the whole of Europe.

At the beginning of the game, Suarez broke through to the edge of the penalty area with the ball, and Messi chased back to complete the steal and cleared it with a big foot. Messi looks alive in this game, which is not good news for Manchester City. Since Messi was injured in November last year and did not return until February, his form has been up and down, which has also affected Barcelona's results, and Li Chengfeng does not want him to break out in this game.

However, this game is like this, Messi broke out suddenly. In the 7th minute, Xavi's shot in front of the penalty area went wide. Messi fell in the box under the Sako defense and should have awarded a penalty, but the referee showed mercy. It looks like the impact of the last round has carried over to the present, and Li Chengfeng is very satisfied. Football is like that, you can't be proud forever and you won't always be unlucky.

However, Messi's condition is really good, in the 12th minute, Messi forced several people to break through the right side of the small penalty area and shoot past the goalkeeper, but fortunately, Kompany cleared in front of the empty goal at the last moment, Manchester City escaped, and Li Chengfeng was also shocked into a cold sweat.

A player like Messi is really unable to defend when he is in full form, and he can still play for his teammates. In the 45th minute, Messi made a direct pass, and Sanchez's shot was pushed into the near corner by Fernandinho.

It was also Barcelona's last shot on goal in the first half, and it was still very dangerous, but City's defence was tough enough not to concede a goal. But if the Barcelona continue to attack like this, it will be only a matter of time before City concede a goal.

We can't go on like this, we have to change. Barcelona's offense is too crazy, and Messi is the source of it all, if you want to limit Barcelona's offense, you must first limit Messi. As long as Messi is restricted, there is nothing to fear from the rest of Barcelona.

Li Chengfeng arranged that Vidal and Klich must take more care of Messi, and if it doesn't work, he will decisively foul and restrict him from cutting into the middle, especially the opposite Klich, who is fast and can play a role in interference.

However, this still cannot completely limit Messi. In the 51st minute of the second half, Messi shook off the right side of the penalty area and fired a low shot after Saccone cut, and the ball hit the left post and bounced back.

Sacco is still too young to handle Messi, a player of this level. Li Chengfeng looked at the defenders on the bench, a tall defender like Samba was not as flexible as Sako, and he could only be overdone.

Do you want Toure to play at the back? The liberated Xavi is no small threat, he is the brain of Barcelona. Li Chengfeng thought about it and beckoned Kompany to switch positions with Sako, and he went to defend Messi, who broke through the defense of Klich and Vidal.

The adjustment finally worked, and with Vidal, Klich and Kompany under the siege of the trio, Messi was finally much less threatening. While others have had more chances, City's defence is more than enough to cope with alone, so can Cesc Fabregas really be expected to be a full-fledged centre-forward?

To break down Manchester City's goal, Barcelona will have to invest more attacking manpower. As time went on, the Barcelona people didn't care about Manchester City's counter-attack, and they pressed all the way to the goal. They also need just one goal to beat Manchester City and progress to the next round.

However, under Li Chengfeng's targeting, Barcelona was completely unable to play the short pass coordination and penetrating attack that they are good at, and could only play more direct, trying to rely on the individual ability of the star to try to break the deadlock.

Li Chengfeng saw the move and immediately made adjustments, he pulled Toure back to protect the defense line, and let Reus interfere with Xavi. Reus's defensive ability is naturally much worse than Toure's, but it is by no means a colander, and it is no problem to interfere with Xavi, who is already 34 years old and has been running for more than an hour.

Barcelona still couldn't break through Manchester City's goal, but were scored by Manchester City first. In the 89th minute, Reus took a corner kick, and Suarez's header was scored by Neymar from close range, and Manchester City chased it to 1-0!

The game was stable, Li Chengfeng finally put his mind at ease, Barcelona wanted to come back, they need to score at least 2 goals in the remaining minutes, Li Chengfeng didn't think they could do it.

But Barcelona still made Li Chengfeng's heart lift again. In the 91st minute, Iniesta shook Neuer's return pass on the right side of the penalty area, and Alves scored in front of the small penalty area, 1 to 1!

The gap returned to one ball, and Li Chengfeng's heart hung again. Fortunately, there was so little time left, and Manchester City's tactical substitutions consumed some more time, and Barcelona were finally unable to pull it back.

Barcelona had a chance to score in the final moments, Cesc Fabregas crossed into the box and Kompany got in front of Messi to break the ball out of the box.

In the end, Manchester City drew 1:1 with Barcelona at home and eliminated the opponent with an aggregate score of 3:2 to advance to the last 8. The current Barcelona is no longer the Barcelona team before, the player lineup is aging, the transfer operation failed, and more importantly, the player's aggressiveness is not as good as before, losing the magic weapon of the full-court pressing and counter-robbery, which is the lifeline of Barcelona's passing and control tactics, and the failure of the whole line this season is inevitable.

Manchester City's next knockout opponent will be another Spanish side, Simeone's Atletico Madrid.

Atletico Madrid's attack is not very good, but the defense is really good, and they play the counter-attacking style almost to the extreme. However, they are not without their weaknesses, and that is the depth of their squad. Simeone has almost a squad this season, and it is really difficult for them to compete with Barcelona and Real Madrid for the league title.

In contrast, Manchester City's squad depth is good enough to make Simeone jealous and hateful. Even with a few rotations on each occasion, City have managed to win three and draw one in the league, including a replay at Manchester United, where they thrashed Manchester United 3-0 to beat their derby rivals again. If it weren't for the four-game demon Arsenal, they would have won four consecutive victories, and Arsenal in the state of fighting for the four is really not easy to mess with, of course, this is also because Li Chengfeng chose to rotate for the Champions League knockout in a few days.

Atletico Madrid is much more difficult, they did their best, and finally gnawed down the hard bone Athletic Bilbao, the players' physical strength can not be recovered, but they can only grit their teeth and persevere, and they just adhere to the defensive counterattack style of play, stationed in the backfield, waiting for the opportunity.

Li Chengfeng naturally knows Simeone's tactical characteristics, but he will not let Manchester City rush to attack, he imitated the tactics of Zidane's Real Madrid to win the Champions League three times in a row, and discharged the combination of Klos-Vidal-Modric in the back position. Vidal at his peak is only better than Casemiro two years later, while the forward trident Neymar Suarez Reus is not inferior to Real Madrid's BBC, even compared to the MSN combination of Barcelona in the real world.

At the start of the game, Simeone stood on the sidelines and frowned as he watched Manchester City's slow organization of the attack. He didn't expect that Manchester City used a completely different tactic in this game than against Barcelona, giving up the oppressive style of play, and instead controlling the midfield to slowly organize the attack, which made Atletico Madrid's counterattack a lot less, even if Atletico Madrid blocked Manchester City's attack, but because Manchester City did not press very high, there was no chance to counterattack.

However, if he took the initiative to attack, Atletico Madrid's physical strength was not enough, and Simeone was entangled. It was at this point that the situation on the pitch changed when Kompany fell to the ground and injured himself while Costa was competing for a header. Li Chengfeng looked at the bench and did not replace Sako, but chose Toure to be replaced. Toure can also play at the back, and his physical advantage is more suitable for this game.

The accident gave Simeone a sense of opportunity, and perhaps this was a gap. Atletico Madrid pressed a little, but were quickly pushed back.

Manchester City took advantage of the slight relaxation of Atletico Madrid's defense and got several chances to shoot on goal in a row. In the 18th minute, Cork tripped Neymar in midfield and was booked. In the 22nd minute, Klos picked up a cross in the middle, and Neymar forced a header from Felipe near the penalty spot, and Courtois easily saved the ball. In the 25th minute, Reuss shook Miranda on the left and passed through, and Modric's left-footed shot from the left rib of the penalty area was tackled by Jimenez.

In the 29th minute, Costa's injury made Simeone completely abandon the idea of taking the initiative to attack, and he replaced Costa with midfielder Diego, with Villa as a lone arrow, concentrating on defensive counterattacks.

After that, Manchester City completely dominated the field, and Atletico Madrid could only rely on frequent fouls to stop Manchester City's attack, but the referee's whistle in this game was too soft, which also contributed to Atletico Madrid's small actions.

(End of chapter)

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