Half-time, Real Madrid dressing room.

The players sat on the bench, gasping for breath and wiping their sweat with dry towels as they drank water.

"Tony, you can press forward boldly when defending, I'm behind you!"

"Karim, I was a little rushed to shoot just now, if we pass one more shot, we have a better chance!"

"Luka, after passing more, the defensive space on the opposite side is actually very big!"

Even after falling behind, the Real Madrid players did not fall into a lifeless atmosphere at half-time.

Carlo Ancelotti looked at Modric and Kroos in deep thought.

After falling behind by two goals before, Real Madrid had to press with all their might in the first half, which was too much physical burden for the two veterans.

If he still played like this in the second half, no matter how magical Pintus was, he would not be able to save the serious decline in fitness.

As a result, Ancelotti warmed up the substitutes in advance and was ready to be on call at any time.

Before the start of the second half, Manchester City actually made a substitution.

Fernandinho replaces John Stones.

Stones, who is injured, has suffered a serious decline in form and is unable to continue the high-intensity game.

Pep Guardiola's adjustment was swift, and he spotted the defensive problems in midfield, using five midfield to directly face Real Madrid's three midfielders.

Manchester City did not intend to give up on attacking because they were ahead, on the contrary, they attacked more violently.

Ancelotti did not rush to change to the defensive back, but wanted to hit Manchester City through the counterattack of the striker.

The central defender's upward rush and supplementary defense are particularly crucial.

Once the centre-backs are on top to fill the hole in the midfield, then Real Madrid's forward three can effectively threaten City's two wings.

In addition to asking the centre-backs to go forward, Luka Modric and Ernesto Valverde need to run a lot to cover the defence and cut off the opposition's passing.

Is this going to be desperate?

Pep Guardiola was a little surprised by the adjustment of Real Madrid's adventure.

With the current staffing of Real Madrid, unless Casemiro is in great shape after coming on the pitch and the two central defenders have not made mistakes, Camavinga alone will not be able to fill the defensive holes.

Since he couldn't fill it, Ancelotti was going to give it a go, and the defense demanded to do his best, the most important thing was to hope that the striker would score more goals and bite the opponent in the score.

It's a gamble.

Although the central defenders can make up for the holes in the defensive line, the frequency of Manchester City's frontcourt players is fast, and the local coordination is smooth, and once the upper grabs are empty, only Courtois is unlucky.

In the 50th minute, Manchester City played a wave of fluid combination on the left flank.

Oleksandr Zinchenko, Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden hit the ball in quick succession to draw Real Madrid's defence to the flanks.

De Bruyne slid straight into the ribs and swept straight to goal after receiving Foden's cross-pass.

With a strange arc, the ball bypassed Militão in front of the ball and went straight to the goal.

Perhaps even Gabriel Jesus in the middle did not expect that Tintin's pass could go around the front post so easily.

Lacking in preparation, Jesus scrambled to his feet and shot with the arch of his foot.

Courtois squatted down quickly and blocked the ball with his left leg.

Ooh!

Another missed chance to score, and the hearts of Manchester City fans can't afford to miss opportunities so often.

It's rare to get a shot on goal on such an important stage as the Champions League semi-finals, not to mention that City have missed many chances to seal the win.

At this time, An Pang saw from the game that Modric's physical fitness had seriously declined, and immediately sent Camavinga to strengthen the midfield interception.

Nacho also replaced the injured Alaba, in central defence.

Perhaps in his heart, if he can withstand Manchester City's attack, the score of 2:3 is acceptable.

But Manchester City were not satisfied with the scoreline.

Although the Champions League has abolished the home and away goal advantage at the beginning of this season, the narrow home lead is not safe in the second leg.

Five minutes later, City continued to press towards Real Madrid's right.

Zinchenko forced a burst on Real Madrid's right rib and was directly brought down by Kroos.

Just as the Real Madrid players waited for the referee to blow the whistle to interrupt the game, B-Xi burst into the Real Madrid penalty area with the ball and burst into the net from the near corner.

At this time, the referee's finger circled, signaling that the goal was valid, and the Etihad stadium was boiling again.

【GOAL！！！！！！！！ 】

[Manchester City has scored!] 】

[The score is 4:2!] 】

[B-Silva made reasonable use of the principle of attacking advantage and scored a goal for the team! ] 】

[Real Madrid shouldn't be! 】

[At this time, why would such a low-level mistake be made!] 】

This goal, although it was a bit unexpected, was still a slight loss when An Fat was playing a tactical game with Guagua.

Just as Asensio was preparing to come on as a substitute, City's attack on the left flank picked up.

Mahrez faced Real Madrid surrounded by many people on the side, and while pretending to pass horizontally, the rhythm of his left foot changed, and the ball was quickly moved straight forward to force a breakthrough.

[Huh? Mahrez has passed! 】

【Single Knife Ball!】 】

【Shot!! 】

In the excited shouts of the on-site commentators, Mahrez's push shot slid out again.

Three times!

It was the third great chance Mahrez missed in this game.

Every time he shoots, he can kill the game directly.

Guardiola could only hold his head in his hands, his eyes were angry, incredible, and helpless.

He didn't know what words to use to describe his current mood.

Perhaps the moment he turned around and threw the water bottle in anger, he foresaw that it would be an imperfect victory.

So far, Ancelotti's adjustments have not yielded the positive side, but the negative side has been frequently exposed to opponents.

Ancelotti then continued to adjust and put the focus of his attack on Fernandinho, who came on in the second half.

After John Stones' departure, City switched to a three-centre-back, while veteran Fernandinho relied on the team's high pressing to play his tackle and interception ability in midfield.

In other words, if Real Madrid break through Fernandinho's defensive zone, City's three-centre-back system will become very brittle.

Pep Guardiola looked at Carlo Ancelotti, who had been calm.

This fat old man is very bad!

In the 70th minute, Benzema retreated to the left to receive the pass.

Mendy stepped forward and Rossi moved to the ribs, forming a two-shot attack.

In the confrontation with Fernandinho, Benzema pulled the ball back and turned around with a Marseille slalom, and at the same time, he quickly moved the ball forward with his right foot, avoided the interception, and broke forward.

The fans were also shocked by Benzema's commotion.

[It is said that the older the player, the more demonic he plays!] 】

[Benzema's flash of inspiration just now is indeed to give full play to his skills and consciousness! ] 】

[Real Madrid's counterattack chance! ] 】

[Benzema straight stopper! ] 】

[Rosie is single-handed! 】

[Deduct Dias! 】

【Shot!!! 】

【GOAL！！！！！！！ 】

[The ball is in!] 】

[What an incredible race! 】

【4:3！ 】

[Real Madrid bites the opponent tightly, causing a huge sense of urgency for Manchester City! 】

Pep Guardiola's ominous foreboding has come true.

Teams are bound to be punished after frequently missing chances.

And this goal is very similar to the red-blue clash between Manchester City and Liverpool two weeks ago.

City's defence was unable to limit the opposition's all-round centre-forward, and Salah was able to penetrate the space behind the high defence.

The same goes for this game.

Benzema retreated to take the ball and attack in tandem, and also broke through the Manchester City midfield defense with high-quality attacks.

Carlo Ancelotti pushed back from the side with a violent counter-violence to push back the maximum pressure of Manchester City.

At this point, the game has been decided.

The managers of both sides are preparing for the second leg.

The return of Casemiro on Real Madrid's side will take the defence up a notch.

The return of the two main full-backs on Manchester City's side and the return of Gundogan can make a difference in the situation.

In the end, Real Madrid left the Etihad Stadium with a score of 3:4.

(End of chapter)