Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City were lucky to get a point out of their Champions League clash with Serie A entertainers Atalanta.
Atalanta coach Gian Piero Gasperini has shared his belief that Manchester City are more than a little suspect defensively after Pep Guardiola’s side were fortunate to hold on for a point in Wednesday’s dramatic Champions League encounter at the San Siro, in an interview on the club’s official website.
City absolutely dominated the first 45 minutes in Italy and, if it wasn’t for a wretched penalty from Gabriel Jesus, the win probably would have been wrapped up at half-time. But the Premier League champions failed to build on Raheem Sterling’s early opener and they were made to pay by an Atalanta side who emerged completely transformed after the interval.
The Chelsea loanee Mario Pasalic powered an equaliser past Claudio Bravo, who replaced the injured Ederson at the break, before the Chiliean shot-stopper was himself sent off late on – meaning Kyle Walker was forced to play the final 10 minutes between the sticks.
Atalanta failed to test out the right-back’s reflexes despite a period of sustained pressure, however, meaning the Italian entertainers have picked up just one point from four group stage games.
But Gasperini believes that, en route to a still impressive result, his side unearthed Manchester City’s Achilles heel.
“Manchester City are excellent at going forward, but they struggle at the back,” said the one-time Inter Milan coach.
“So we had to take some risks, we raised the level of what we thought was the maximum, started to move it quicker, get the ball back, win tackles and in that second half we created more scoring opportunities and played better than Manchester City.”
In fairness, City were forced to start with Fernandinho and the out-of-sorts Nicolas Otamendi at the back thanks to Aymeric Laporte’s long-term lay off, though Guardiola’s decision to leave John Stones on the bench almost came back to bite him.
But the way a somewhat out-of-form Manchester City performed in a ragged second half should give Liverpool plenty of confidence ahead of Sunday’s crunch clash at Anfield.
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