66 2GM Wednesday April 13 2022 | the times
SportChampions League quarter-final
As the hour mark approached at the
Estádio da Luz last week, Jordan Hen-
derson, Roberto Firmino and Diogo
Jota appeared on the touchline for
Liverpool, awaiting their introduction.
The away side had lost control of the
Champions League quarter-final, first
leg against Benfica, who had halved a
2-0 half-time deficit soon after the
break, and Jürgen Klopp sought to stifle
the home side’s momentum with a
triple change. Order would be soon
restored, to ensure a healthy 3-1 advan-
tage for tonight’s second leg.
It had been a similar scenario at the
San Siro in February. Inter Milan were
causing Liverpool problems when
Klopp made three changes after 60
Atletico Madrid (5-3-2; probable): J Oblak —
S Vrsaljko, S Savic, Felipe, Reinildo, Y Carrasco —
M Llorente, G Kondogbia, Koke — Á Correa,
J Félix.
Manchester City (4-3-3; probable): Ederson —
K Walker, J Stones, A Laporte, J Cancelo —
K De Bruyne, Rodri, B Silva — R Mahrez, P Foden,
J Grealish.
Referee D Siebert (Ger).A couple of hours before the thunder-
storms arrived, the residents of Madrid
were sitting outside the cafés near the
Puerta del Sol, sipping their cortados as
the sun’s rays shone on them.
Some of those of a red-and-white
persuasion were flicking through the
pages of the daily sports newspapers
Marca and AS.
Although Marca’s coverage is prima-
rily aimed at Real Madrid supporters,
there was still a hefty section dedicated
to the second leg of Atletico Madrid’s
quarter-final tie against Manchester
City.
Positivity was the watchword. “Sime-
one’s fortress,” read one headline next
to a picture of their Wanda Metropoli-
tano home. The article below
reminded fans that in the 11
years since Diego Simeone
took charge, Atletico have
never lost a Champions
League knockout game
at home.
That is all well and
good, but it kind of miss-
es the point. Atletico do
not have to avoid defeat to
deny City a place in their
third Champions League semi-
final. Given that they lost the first
leg 1-0, Atletico have to beat City, and
that is easier said than done.
Atletico are knockout-stage experts
— they have reached the semi-finals six
times — but their form at home in
Europe this season has been sub-par. In
the group stage they lost to AC Milan
and Liverpool and they could only draw
0-0 with Porto. In the round of 16 they
drew 1-1 with Manchester United.
There is no doubt that City’s squad is
superior in quality and confidence
levels are higher too after winning the
first leg and drawing 2-2 with Liverpool
on Sunday.
“I trust these players a lot. We are
doing really well,” Pep Guardiola, the
City manager, said before he and his
players boarded their flight to the Span-
Little danger for
City... unless they
take Simeone’s bait
ish capital. “When you are this close to
the semi-finals, you are not tired.
“You can lose because you [have] a
bad performance or the opponent is
better, but not because you are tired.”
The only way in which Atletico will
progress is if City succumb to the
psychological warfare they will be sub-
jected to tonight at Atletico’s atmos-
pheric stadium on the Avenida de Luis
Aragonés on the eastern outskirts of
Madrid.
The 55,000 Atletico ticket-holders
have been urged to arrive an hour
before kick-off. Once they get to their
seat, they will find a piece of coloured
cardboard that forms part of a giant
mosaic containing a “motivational
slogan”. The idea is for all 55,000 fans to
sing loudly and hold the cardboard
above their heads when the
players start their warm-up.
If last week’s first leg is
anything to go by, Atleti-
co’s players and manager
will try to influence the
officials. Certain players
will be targeted — Jack
Grealish was fouled five
times in his 22-minute
cameo last week.
The trick is not to take the
bait. One sending-off could
turn the tie in Atletico’s favour.
“You have to finish with 11 [players on
the pitch] in the knockout stages,”
Guardiola added. “We have to focus on
our game plan.”
The good news for Guardiola is that
City showed a newfound maturity and
composure en route to the final last
year, coming from behind against
Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-
Germain.
There is no cooler customer in
Guardiola’s squad than Ederson. On
Sunday, despite the attention of Diogo
Jota, the Brazil goalkeeper calmly read-
justed his body on the goalline and
passed out to the left wing.
“He is crazy,” Guardiola said of the
28-year-old. “Sometimes I think he
doesn’t feel anything. It was just oneinch from goal but it doesn’t matter. He
is so good, so stable. He doesn’t feel
pressure.”
Ederson did not have a save to make
in the first leg because Atletico parked
the bus at the Etihad Stadium. Guardio-
la expects to see a more attacking
version of the Spanish champions
tonight, but Simeone suggested yester-
day that Atletico would sit deep and
try to hit City on the counterattack
again.
“We’re not going to stray too far from
what we do best,” Simeone said.
Atletico kept themselves in the tie by
conceding only one goal in Manches-
ter, but their defensive approach was
criticised in some quarters.
Marco van Basten, the former Hol-
land striker, suggested that Atletico
fans would “rather watch Netflix” than
their team. Simeone was not impressed
by that comment.
“I’ve been coaching since 2005 and
I’ve never been critical of a colleague,”
the Argentinian said. “It’s like my father
used to say, ‘The mouth kills the fish.’
You always have to show respect.
Always, always, always.”
Rúben Dias, the City defender, has
recovered from a hamstring injury but
will start on the substitutes’ bench.
City’s only absentee is Cole Palmer,
who is making encouraging progress
in his recovery from an abdominal
problem after consulting Dr Ramón
Cugat.
Atletico will be without their defend-
er José María Giménez and the Mexico
midfielder Héctor Herrera.
Uefa has ordered that 5,000 seats
be covered because of racist gestures
made by some Atletico supportes in the
first leg.Paul Hirst
At Madrid (0)
v Man City (1)
Champions League
Quarter-final, second leg
Tonight, 8pm
TV: BT Sport 2
Radio: talkSPORTHow Klopp tries to stay one step ahead
minutes, this time Naby Keita, Hender-
son and Luis Díaz were ushered on.
Twenty minutes later, a two-goal
cushion had been established.
Klopp has championed the
five-substitute rule in
Europe being adopted in
the Premier League and
hailed the recent pass-
ing of a motion that in-
creases the number of
changes from three for
the 2022-23 campaign.
Yet while Thomas
Tuchel, the Chelsea head
coach, has claimed the delay in
bringing in the change has disad-
vantaged English clubs, despite using
five substitutes in only four of nine
games before last night’s tie with Real
Madrid, Liverpool have not suffered.Klopp believes that five substitutes is
crucial for the welfare of players given
the congested schedule. Mohamed Sa-
lah has started every Champions
League game this term and
Klopp is weighing up whe-
ther that run should con-
tinue. The forward has
still been granted 104
minutes’ rest in Europe,
which compares with
188 minutes in 29 league
appearances.
Still, the leeway of being
able to make two additional
substitutions and fully use the
strength of depth at his disposal has
been a strategic boon to Klopp — one
that is aiding progress in Europe while
also maintaining freshness for
domestic endeavours. It allows KloppPaul Joyce
Northern Football Correspondent
J
ürgen Klopp believes that no
English club has achieved the
Quadruple because television
broadcasters compound the already
hectic schedules by looking to cash
in on the “fame” of teams.
“You can’t go for four trophies,”
Klopp, whose side have already won
the Carabao Cup, said. “You are part
of four competitions and we are
thankfully good enough this year
not to go out early, but the fixture
list we have now, let’s get through it.‘Blame TV for no Quadruples’
“If we play a Champions League
semi-final, find me another league
in the world and another
broadcaster who would put the one
team in the semi-finals on at 12.30
[on Saturday, the earliest fixture of
the weekend]. What? What are you
doing? Why would you do that?
“The schedule, and how people
use the fame — Liverpool is hot and
everyone wants to see them — the
TV stations couldn’t care less. It’s
just not OK. That’s why it never
happens, because nobody cares. It’s
unbelievably difficult.”Paul Joyce
Liverpool (3)
v Benfica (1)
Champions League
Quarter-final, second leg
Tonight, 8pm
TV: BT Sport 3W
hen Fernandinho
hops on a plane back
to Brazil this
summer, tears will
not just be shed at
Manchester City.
A fiercely competitive leader, he
will leave a huge void in the City
dressing room, but it says much
about his infectious character that
players from Manchester United and
Liverpool will also be sad to see him
go. The City captain, who wants
more regular game time after starting
only six matches in the Premier
League this season, is open to
moving back to Athletico Paranaense
where he began his career.
Fernandinho surprised Pep
Guardiola yesterday by announcing
that his nine-year stint at City will
come to an end this summer. The
club captain, 36, said: “I will go back
to Brazil. I decided with my family,
which is the most important thing.”
Fernandinho said that “some”
people at City knew he was leaving,
but it appeared that Guardiola was
not one of them. “I didn’t know it,”
the City manager said.
“You gave me the
news. It is a
surprise.
Fernandinho is
very important
to me. We will
see what happens.
I will talk to him at
the end of the season.”
Since he arrived from Shakhtar
Donetsk in 2013, Fernandinho’s
Cheshire house has been a social hub
for Portuguese-speaking players in
the area. Fred, the Manchester
United midfielder, and the Liverpool
goalkeeper, Alisson, are regular
visitors, as are the Portuguese
speakers in City’s squad.
Over the course of his time at
Liverpool, Lucas Leiva developed a
close relationship with Fernandinho.
He is known by the Brazilians at
City’s North West rivals as “our
captain”. But he doesn’t only hang
out with Portuguese speakers. At the
City Football Academy, you will see
him flitting between the separategroups. He feels just as comfortable
in the company of Kyle Walker and
John Stones as he does Ederson,
Gabriel Jesus, João Cancelo and
Bernardo Silva.
When Fernandinho arrived in
Manchester, one of his priorities was
to learn English quickly so he could
get to know the local players, staff
and people. He has won 11 major
trophies for City. The only one he isFernandinho
blindsides Pep
with decision
to leave club
Paul Hirsthes.
at
ason.”
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