PEP WILL WANT HIS DEFENDERS FULLY FOCUSED
You can buy Defending For Dummies in paperback online, but we have to hope Pep Guardiola and Carlo Ancelotti didn’t add a copy to their baskets this week. The first-leg clash between Manchester City and Real Madrid was thrilling, in part because of the defensive naivety on show. The neutrals among us want to see more of the same tonight — two awesome attacking sides going head to head. That isn’t what Guardiola needs, mind. He wants City to be safer, less chaotic and more comfortable. He doesn’t want a classic, he wants a routine win. For that to happen, City can’t be as generous as last week. We could dissect all three goals they conceded and find faults. For Real’s first, oleksandr Zinchenko was ever so slightly late getting goalside and not close enough to stop Karim Benzema wrapping his foot around the ball. For the second, Vinicius Junior had Fernandinho on toast. The 36-year-old Brazilian was sold a dummy as Vinicius got behind him, before charging forward to score. Aymeric Laporte didn’t cover himself in glory, either. Preoccupied with Benzema, he failed to come across to close down Vinicius. For the third, Laporte leapt with his arm in the air, handling the ball and giving the Spaniards a route back from the spot. Guardiola will have hated seeing those goals go in. He will want better from his defence.