Pep Guardiola later reflected that his Manchester City had passed the ball for the sake of passing the ball, “and when that happens, it’s not football” he added, as if to explain that rarest of occurrences at the Etihad Stadium: a defeat for the home side.
You would have to go back to December 2016 for the last one, when Antonio Conte’s Chelsea were building up a head of steam in the Premier League and the Guardiola effect had not yet taken a firm hold at City. This time it was the Swiss champions, already pulverised 4-0 in the first leg in Basel and playing just for the sheer hell of it, who pinched a footnote in the history of one Europe’s most formidable sides.
They did so from one goal behind and through an eventual winner from Michael Lang, for whom it has been a remarkable Champions League season. The 27-year-old Swiss right-back scored the late winner against Manchester United in the group stages in November and against the other Mancunian superpower he has claimed another goal that he can cherish forever.
City are in the Champions League quarter-finals as expected, for only the second time in this historic decade since the Abu Dhabi fossil fuel fortune pulled them out of mediocrity and into the elite.
Guardiola let most of his biggest names sit this one out and it was always likely to be a strange kind of game but even he might have been surprised by how far short the replacements fell in the end.
They had taken the lead through Gabriel Jesus after eight minutes and missed a lot more opportunities after that, but with six changes from the team that beat Chelsea, Guardiola said this was always going to be a different story. “In the second half, we forgot to attack, we forgot to play,” he said. “Passing the ball means to move the opponents in order to attack, but to just pass for itself is nothing and the second half was really, really poor.”
BANJARMASINPOST.CO.ID - Kendati Manchester City mengalami kekalahan 1-2 melawan FC Basel pada laga leg kedua babak 16 besar Liga Champions di Stadion Etihad, Rabu (7/3/2018) waktu setempat, skuat asuhan Pep Guardiola tetap melaju ke perempat final dengan kemenangan agregat 5-2.
Kedua gol yang terjadi pada paruh pertama tersebut masing-masing diciptakan Gabriel Jesus pada menit ke-8 dan gol balasan dicetak Mohammed Elyounoussi (17').
Satu gol penentu kemenangan Basel di babak kedua dicetak Michael Lang pada menit ke-71.
Man City sudah punya peluang besar untuk bisa lolos ke perempat final setelah unggul agregat 4-0 berkat kemenangan di markas Basel.
Hanya butuh hasil imbang, atau maksimal kalah 0-3, membuat pelatih Pep Guardiola berani melakukan rotasi besar kali ini.
Setidaknya ada 9 pemain berbeda yang dimainkan sejak menit pertama jika dibandingkan dari pertemuan sebelumnya.
Bahkan, di lini depan Guardiola memberi kepercayaan kepada Gabriel Jesus yang sudah terbebas dari masalah cedera.
Hanya Bernardo Silva dan Ilkay Guendogan sebagai dua pemain yang tampil sejak menit pertama di dua laga kontra Basel.
Sementara itu, tidak banyak kejutan dari tim tamu karena masih mengandalkan sebagian besar nama-nama yang bermain di leg pertama.
Peluang lolos tim berjulukan The Citizens semakin besar saat Jesus membongkar pertahanan Basel saat laga baru berusia 8 menit.
Manchester City lost at home for the first time in 459 days but secured passage to the quarter-finals with a 5-2 aggregate win
FC Basel came from behind to inflict City's first home loss in 15 months -but the Blues still progress to the Champions League quarter-finals with a 5-2 aggregate win.
Gabriel Jesus gave City an early lead, but the Swiss champions fought back with goals either side of the break to give their travelling fans a night to remember.
City, with six changes from Sunday’s 1-0 win over Chelsea, wasted no time in taking command of this second leg tie.
All week the players and manager have been underlining there would be no complacency despite the 4-0 lead achieved in the first leg, and with just eight minutes on the clock the Blues were ahead.
Leroy Sane, who seems to be saving his best form for the final weeks of the campaign, burst past two or three challenges before sliding the ball to Bernardo Silva whose threaded low cross was tapped in at the far post by Gabriel Jesus.
On 17 minutes though, the visitors were celebrating when poor marking saw the ball fall to Mohamed Elyounoussi inside the box and his crisp low shot gave Claudio Bravo no chance.
The Etihad Stadium was stunned into silence on 71 minutes as Elyounoussi's clever reverse pass was hammered home by Michael Lang to give the visitors a shock lead.
City toiled in the time that remained, but couldn't find a way back into the game which, thankfully, was wrapped up in the first leg.
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