Kevin De Bruyne struck a crucial second-half winner to give Manchester City a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Etihad.
The first leg of the Champions League quarter-final was a tight affair, with City dominating the ball but finding it tough to break through a typically dogged display from Diego Simeone’s side.
With 20 minutes remaining though, De Bruyne finished cooly past Jan Oblak to give City a narrow lead to take to Madrid next Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola joked in the build-up to the match that he would overthink the match and name 12 players, and he might have wished he had have done in a first-half where Atletico sat back and frustrated their opponents.
The visitors played a 5-5-0 formation when out of possession and City struggled to find a way through. De Bruyne had a shot deflected behind for a corner, while John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan both sent efforts high over the bar from distance.
Atletico didn’t manage a shot, and barely a touch in City’s half, in an opening 45 minutes that lacked much action.
There was more entertainment in the two minutes after the break than the entire first-half. Gundogan had a shot deflected just wide, and from the result corner Atletico swiftly broke through Antoine Griezmann, though he ran out of pace and the chance went.
De Bruyne had a free-kick saved and then kicked clear by Oblak at the second attempt, before Aymeric Laporte headed just over the bar from a corner.
Phil Foden, Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus were all introduced midway through the second-half, and within two minutes City had taken the lead.
It was Foden who provided the assist, with his first involvement off the bench, as he played a perfect pass through to De Bruyne who slid the shot under Oblak and into the far corner.
Atletico showed little desire to push for an equaliser in what remained of the match, focusing more attention on riling Grealish up with some rough treatment at every opportunity. The Spanish side failed to attempt a single shot in the match.
It’s a two-week period that will define City’s season, with next week’s second-leg against Atletico sandwiched by matches against Liverpool first in the Premier League and then the FA Cup. The first assignment on the list has been successfully ticked off.
