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
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.”
Manchester - Manchester City takluk 1-2 dari FC Basel pada laga leg kedua 16 besar Liga Champions, di Stadion Etihad, Rabu (8/3/2018). Meski kalah, City tetap melenggang ke perempat final.
The Citizens unggul agregat 5-2 atas Basel, setelah pada pertemuan pertama di St. Jakob-Park, 13 Februari 2018, meraih kemenangan dengan skor 4-0.
The Citizens mengawali pertandingan dengan baik. Mereka pun sukses unggul lebih dulu pada menit kedelapan berkat bola hasil sepakan kaki kiri Gabriel Jesus.
Tertinggal satu gol tak membuat mental bermain Basel runtuh. Klub berjuluk RotBlau itu mampu menyamakan kedudukan pada menit ke-17. Bola hasil sepakan Mohamed Elyounoussi gagal dihalau kiper City, Claudio Bravo.
Memasuki menit-menit akhir babak pertama, The Citizens tetap tampil dominan. Sementara itu, Basel beberapa kali mengancam lewat serangan balik. Akan tetapi, sampai turun minum, skor 1-1 tetap bertahan.
Masuk paruh kedua, Man City sama sekali tak mengendurkan tempo serangan. Namun, justru Basel yang berhasil menggandakan keunggulan pada menit ke-71 berkat bola hasil sepakan Michael Lang ke tiang dekat.
Jelang laga berakhir, Manchester City terus menekan pertahanan Basel. Sayang, sampai laga usai, City tetap kalah 1-2 dari RotBlau.
Manchester City (4-3-3): 1-Claudio Bravo; 3-Danilo, 14-Aymeric Laporte, 5-John Stones, 35-Oleksandr Zinchenko; 8-Ilkay Gundogan (55-Brahim Diaz 66'), 42-Yaya Toure, 47-Phil Foden (24-Tosin Adarabioyo 89'); 20-Bernardo Silva, 33-Gabriel Jesus, 19-Leroy Sane.
FC Basel (3-4-2-1): 1-Tomas Vaclik; 17-Marek Suchy, 6-Fabian Frei, 3-Leo Lacroix; 5-Michael Lang, 7-Luca Zuffi, 200Serey Die, 25-Blas Riveros; 24-Mohammed Elyounoussi, 33-Kevin Bua (14-Valentin Stocker 68'); 19-Dimitri Oberlin (9-Ricky van Wolfswinkel 74').
Gilabola.com – Hasil pertandingan Liga Champions antara Manchester City vs Basel, Kamis, usai dengan skor 1-2. Gabriel Jesus mencetak gol cepat menit 8. Lihat.
Pemain Brasil Gabriel Jesus yang baru turun usai cedera lutut membuktikan dirinya dengan mencetak gol cepat melawan Basel malam ini di Stadion Etihad. Leroy Sane menggiring bola dengan cepat ke bagian tengah, sebelum menyodorkannya ke Bernardo Silva di sisi kanan kotak penalti, yang pada kesempatan pertama mengirim umpan ke tiang jauh. Jesus ada di sana dan GOL! 1-0!
City menang 4-0 pada leg pertama di Swiss, dan selisih itu memberi Pep Guardiola cukup kepercayaan dirii untuk membuat rotasi besar-besaran pada timnya. Pemain remaja Phil Foden memulai debutnya yang ketiga dalam semua kompetisi, sementara Jesus menjalani starter pertamanya sejak ia pulih dari cedera lutut.
Yaya Toure juga diberi starter langka di lini tengah, dengan ban kapten di lengannya. Sementara itu John Stones berada di pusat lini pertahanan untuk pertama kalinya dalam waktu lebih dari dua minggu terakhir. Sang manajer Catalan masih punya Plan B. Kalau terjadi perlawanan dari Basel, Guardiola punya Kevin De Bruyne dan Sergio Aguero di bangku cadangan.
Nah benar kan. Basel melawan balik. Mereka dengan cepat mencetak gol balasan pada menit 17 melalui Mohamed Elyounoussi. Tak ada pemain City yang mencoba menghentikan bola. Mereka seperti terlihat terlalu percaya diri bahwa Basel tak mungkin mencetak gol di sini. Lihat serangan dari sisi kiri ini, dan bagaimana tak seorang pun melakukan tantangan. GOL! 1-1! Lini belakang akan sangat tersengat setelah ini.
Elyounoussi is the man on the spot to level the score. Soft defending, nobody stepped up to stop the ball. pic.twitter.com/dy5Kq7woyD
— Rob (@Razza_7) March 7, 2018
