Can Zidane Take Real Into The Final?
Zidane needs to up his learning curve if he wants to win the Champions League this season with Real Madrid. His switch of Bale to the other side of the wing (left) later in the game proved to be a better decision for Real, but Manchester City did well in the first half and in the second half Real were the better team in this first leg semi-final, 0-0 draw.
A draw was a fair result and overall both teams should be happy with the result, Vincent Kompany said :'I think a 0-0 result is a good result and Real had a clear game plan of hitting us on the break, but we need to look at defending set-pieces better."
City though were sharp and they were quick to close down the Real players in the midfield and disrupt the play and get the ball back, Real Madrid played too much of those short passes and were predictable in midfield and only in the second half did they start to spray the ball a bit more and created more dimensions in their play and Gareth Bale needs to stop falling down simply, though Bale is still the real deal he has not evolved since he left Spurs and he was rightly booed by City fans for diving. .
This City team though is much more integrated and look more like a team and City manager Pellegrini has to take some credit for it, If City wins the Champions League though, there will be a question mark on whether the appointment of Guardiola was the right one and maybe just maybe it was more of Barcelona having the right structure in-terms of the academy and great players including obviously Messi of course for that Guardiola success, but let us not get ahead of ourselves a certain Cristiano Ronaldo was missing from the first leg, city need to be disciplined in their play away from home and at the Santiago Bernabeu, the back four of City need to stamp out the attacks higher up the field.
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