Kevin De Bruyne struck a crucial second-half winner to give Manchester City a 1-0 win over Atletico Madrid at the Etihad.
The first leg of the Champions League quarter-final was a tight affair, with City dominating the ball but finding it tough to break through a typically dogged display from Diego Simeone’s side.
With 20 minutes remaining though, De Bruyne finished coolly past Jan Oblak to give City a narrow lead to take to Madrid next Wednesday.
Pep Guardiola joked in the build-up to the match that he would overthink the match and name 12 players, and he would have wished he had have done in a first-half where Atletico sat back and frustrated their opponents.
The visitors played a 5-5-0 formation when out of possession and City struggled to find a way through. Kevin De Bruyne had a shot deflected behind for a corner, while John Stones and Ilkay Gundogan both sent efforts high over the bar from distance.
Meanwhile, Liverpool survived a second-half rally from Benfica to take a healthy 3-1 lead at the midway point of their Champions League quarter-final tie.
The Reds dominated the first half and led 2-0 thanks to goals from Ibrahima Konate and Sadio Mane, but a much-improved Benfica pulled one back after the break through Darwin Nunez to seemingly keep the tie alive ahead of next week’s second leg at Anfield.
UCL Q-FINALS RESULTS
Benfica 1-3 Liverpool
Man City 1-0 Atletico
TODAY’S UCL FIXTURES
Chelsea vs Real Madrid 8:00 pm
Villarreal vs Bayern 8:00 pm