Quote from: Fiatless on Today at 05:21:19 PM

Quote from: shogun47 on Today at 12:29:26 PM

I would like to emphasize that I have so far never seen a team that was able to take Haaland out of the game like Real Madrid did against Manchester City. He was almost non-present on the pitch. Except for his header and his one left foot shot, he played no role in the game. It almost hurt to see him being so passive, but it is not only his fault. There wasn't a single precise pass in the free space or a cross ball that came close to him. He was eliminated from the game by Alaba and Rudiger and as I said, I've never seen a defense doing it like Real Madrid pulled it off.

The good part about the Manchester City team is that it consists of many quality players. If an opponent decides to cage Haaland, other players will surely get the work done. That was what happened yesterday. It is not possible to stop the City midfield and attack. We will have a tight game in Etihad because both teams have known their strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats.

It is harder than that I think, because Haaland isn't creating chances, but his teammates are. To make sure that Haaland is caged, as you call it, it is mostly important to cut the connections to him. To now allow the midfield to feed him with balls and that is what Real Madrid did really well in the game against Manchester City. They only lost De Bruyne out of sight one time and that is when he used the opportunity and did this shot in the bottom corner. But Haaland didn't get any balls not only because he was caged, but also because the other players didn't get the time and space to find the right gap for him. That was the game plan for Real Madrid.