Atletico (H) | CL QF 1st Leg - Tue 5th April, 20:00 | Pre-Match Thread

[Withnail]

Simeone will try everything in his locker to waste time, cheat, dive etc. Imperative the players don't react and we keep 11 on the pitch. They have some decent players in Felix and Griezeman and our defence needs to be fully focused and don't commit any errors otherwise we will be punished. On saying that Atletico will be very wary of City and we have the players to hurt them in Foden, Kdb, Mahrez and Sterling.

 

[PaleBlue]

Need a decent enough cushion going into the second leg, be happy with a 2-0/3-1, however, can see this being something monumental and real statement made before Sunday..

Key for this will be Raz, he’s getting in his groove and the set up from AM should provide the space he needs to cause chaos!

I'd love to agree but any kind of scabby 1-0 will do for me, then open them up when they go for it at their place.

 

[Tricky_Trev]

Hope you’re all ready…

He’s taking the piss out of the bullshit people say about him. It’s the same all the time with Pep. If we win, it’s because we have good players. If we lose, Pep overthought. He will prepare a team and game plan that he feels is best to deal with the opponent, same as he always does.

 

[Goater=Legend]

Cool heads tommorow, they'll try anything to wind the players up (probably a good idea for Walker to miss out on)

 

[Didsbury Dave]

He’s taking the piss out of the bullshit people say about him. It’s the same all the time with Pep. If we win, it’s because we have good players. If we lose, Pep overthought. He will prepare a team and game plan that he feels is best to deal with the opponent, same as he always does.

Oh god I hate the “overthinks the champions league” cliche. It’s such reductive nonsense.

 

[Dave El Magico]

No need to overthink things here. Just play our normal game and we should be too strong for Athletico. I hope the crowd really get behind the lads tomorrow night and make plenty of noise. The team appreciate good backing and I hope that this can be from the start until the final whistle.

 

[cleavers]

Can't see him going with that at all, unless Rodri isn't fit.

Nor me.

 

[cleavers]

Need a decent enough cushion going into the second leg

Just win, we won't get beat there imho.

 

[madloaf]

Oh god I hate the “overthinks the champions league” cliche. It’s such reductive nonsense.

I hate it too, except when he overthinks.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

As long as Pep doesn’t overthink what he’s thinking, I think we’ll be fine ; )

 

[WestGorton]

As long as Pep doesn’t overthink what he’s thinking, I think we’ll be fine ; )

I am over thinking now

 

[SRY2000]

I see that there are currently 10 manure fans voting on the outcome of this match.

Come on City, really looking forward to this match.

 

[Ric]

Think we’ll line up like this:

Ederson
Cancelo
Stones
Laporte
Ake
Rodri
Bernardo
De Bruyne
Grealish
Sterling
Foden

 

[Manchester33]

Think we’ll line up like this:

Ederson
Cancelo
Stones
Laporte
Ake
Rodri
Bernardo
De Bruyne
Grealish
Sterling
Foden

I’d be shocked if Mahrez isn’t playing.

 

[SWPISHOME]

I’d be shocked if Mahrez isn’t playing.

Mahrez is one of the first names on the team sheet surely.

Front three of Sterling, Mahrez, Foden would be nice.

 

[Manchester33]

Mahrez is one of the first names on the team sheet surely.

Front three of Sterling, Mahrez, Foden would be nice.

Yep but I think more likely Foden gets dropped and KDB plays false nine. More room for a Rodri, Silva, Gundogan midfield. Whether he goes with Sterling or Grealish is anyones guess.

 

[Ted_Bovis]

Match predictions:

1. We will smash them by three of four
2. Simeone will run up and down the touchline waving imaginary cards
3. At least four Atletico players will have life threatening injuries during the game but miraculously recover after a couple of minutes
4. If you thought the likes of Palace and Neverton could waste time you ain't seen nothing yet
5. The ref will add on zero minutes of injury time in the first half
6. A fucking drum will find its way into the ground but scores of City fans will be told they can't bring a bag in with them and have to pay £5 to store it somewhere
7. The stupid anthem will be booed but on TV the music will be just turned up to mask the booing
8. TV commentators will manage to mention the rags in the first ten minutes

Agreed on all but point 8- I predict after 3 mins rags get mentioned and then point 9 I’d add dippers being mentioned by the 5th minute.

 

[Ted_Bovis]

Probably?

He then went onto say he will play with 12 men as his tactic.

 

[Ted_Bovis]

Drugs don’t work.

No, but special inhalers do.

 

[wolviedinho]

A proper shithouse of a team. Diving, cheating, time wasting will all be on show. The ball will be out of play a lot. Atletico have a tricky attack backed up with a solid defence.

Dippers/Spurs type of game. Control the tempo and stop the counters. We don’t want an end to end game as our finishing is not great.

It’s all on the players for me. Time to learn from our mistakes and step up.

2-1 City.