Match date: 10 December 2013

Bayern München came into the game after a 7-0 beating of Werder Bremen this past weekend in the Bundesliga, while Manchester City have had some difficulties away from home this season, with four of their five losses coming away from the Eithad. Their only loss at home was a 3-1 loss to Bayern München when the two sides first met in group.

Unlike in that match though, Pellegrini opted to play a 4-2-3-1 against Bayern away from home with David Silva coming in as the central player in the three behind Edin Džeko. Guardiola made two changes from the side that beat Werder Bremen bringing in Philipp Lahm at right back and Dante at centre back as Bayern lined up in a 4-1-4-1.

Opening 30 Minutes

München scored both of their goals in the first 12 minutes of the match, with the first coming just five minutes after kick off, and it looked like Bayern were going to continue their goal scoring exploits from the weekend. There were a few key points that allowed Bayern to get such a commanding lead and allow them to dominate the opening stages of the match.

The first of which was how little pressure Manchester City were putting on not only the Bayern player that was in possession of the ball, but more importantly the amount of space that the likes of Kroos and Götze were able to turn into when they picked up the ball from the likes of Thiago, Dante, and Boateng. The space between Manchester City’s back four and their midfield was quite small, credit to Mandzukic, Ribery, Müller, and both Lahm and Alaba for stretching City’s depth. Below you can see the amount of space in front of Kroos, but you can also see in the upper part of the frame that Müller and Lahm are pushing Milner and Kolarov back.

Kroos and Götze utilised the shape as well as they created three chances for their teammates. Kroos’ passing in particular helped move Manchester City’s midfield and defense around to open up different spaces around in City’s defensive third with his expansive passing into the wide areas of the pitch.

While Bayern were able to work the ball into Manchester City’s defensive third and work the ball around well, including Dante’s diagonal from about the midfield line to Müller for the opening goal, City had to rely a lot on long balls to either Džeko or into the path of Jesus Navas who was the primary vertical outlet for Manchester City in the opening half of the match. You can see the difference below as Bayern worked the ball to either side of the pitch through Kroos (as mentioned above), while City relied upon Navas.

City’s Resurgence

Ribery was given a very fluid role by Guardiola in the opening stages of the match. While he did receive the ball majority of the time on the left side of Bayern’s attack, he looked to drift over to the right side of the pitch, which opened up a good amount of space for Alaba to run into. Which is helpful in explaining why Navas was the outlet for City has they tried to break forward; without Ribery to help cover, it would leave Alaba to deal with both Navas and Richards/Zabaleta. However, it was clear that Guardiola had the idea that because Ribery was given a free role, it was Mandukic’s responsibility to work back on the left side when Ribery was vacant.

However, it also seemed as though Guardiola wanted Ribery to stay furthest forward when City had spells of possession within Bayern’s half, perhaps for his pace to get in behind City’s back four for a possible counter as well as his work rate to press the City centre backs if the ball was worked back to them and track Javi Garcia. Before City’s goal, there was certainly plenty of time for Ribery to work his way over to the left side of the pitch, but Mandzukic remained despite City’s best spell of possession thus far in the match.

And so City scored their first goal as Mandzukic was beaten with pace down the line by Navas and Dante was caught ball watching until Silva, who was instrumental in starting and continuing City’s attacks by linking play, made his run onto Milner’s header.

City Press

As the team’s came out for the second half, there was a noticeable difference in City’s pressing. The first four possession’s that Bayern had in their defensive third of the field ended with long balls being played up to Mandzukic with the Croatian winning just one.

City’s pressing put Bayern on the back foot and Boateng, especially, looked less composed playing the ball out from the back to one of this midfielders than he had in the first half which led to the drop off in Thiago, Kroos, and Götze’s influence on the match. The trio worked well in the first half, but as City pressed, they looked lacklustre. Even after City took the lead, they continued to press.

David Silva

Aside from getting City’s opening goal, Silva was easily the away side’s best player in the match. His ability to link City’s play from defense and midfield was a big part of their ability to get back in the match. At half time, Pellegrini changed his tactics regarding Silva and pushed the Spanish international higher up the pitch. Throughout the first half, City relied on the pace of Navas and the 1 v 1 situations that he had with Alaba on the right side of their attack. It would have certainly been noticed by Guardiola and so Pellegrini opted to give City another vertical outlet in Silva. By pushing him further up the pitch, it stretched Bayern’s ability to press in midfield. Below you can see the differences in where Silva was receiving the ball. In the first half, he had to drop deep into midfield and while he did so in the second half as well, he was pushed higher up the pitch to give City more options.

Guardiola must have noticed this change (as well as Götze’s fitness and waning influence) and opted to bring on Javi Martinez, perhaps in an effort to not allow Silva to pick up spaces in front of Bayern’s defense as easily. It was ineffective in doing so, however, as Silva’s influence on the match grew. Below you can see Silva up against Boateng, stretching Bayern’s depth, with Milner out of frame just to the left. From here, Milner plays the ball to Silva and then makes a good run onto Silva’s return pass in the penalty area where Dante brings him down and wins the penalty to make it 2-2.

It was also Silva who picked up the ball in Bayern’s half, and outmuscled Martinez, to find Navas on the right for the cross for Milner’s goal.

Conclusion

City came close to get a fourth goal after Dante was lazy on the ball allowing Negredo to get a shot on goal that was saved by the right leg of Neuer. Overall, Dante and Boateng both had poor nights after both having parts to play in all three of City’s goal. Dante could have done better to get across Silva on the first goal and then brought down Milner for the penalty while Boateng completely missed his clearance on City’s third.

Credit to Manchester City and Pellegrini for the come back, especially to Pellegrini for the changes that he made at half time. He apparently did not realise, however, that City could have topped the group had they gotten another goal, but nonetheless, I’m sure is pleased to have not only won, but to be going through to the next round.

Guardiola will certainly be disappointed that his side were up 2-0 in the opening 12 minutes of the match only to end up losing 3-2, but as he said in his post-match conference, perhaps his side needed to lose in order to push on and prepare themselves for what comes ahead.