It was not possible for us to to know that
they they will play with uh with Fernandinho in a back-three on the right so
we did we discovered that surprise uh just uh before the whistle of the referee
i'm Rudi Garcia we'll talk about the game Lyon Manchester City in uefa champions league
season 1920 the game was in lisbon for the final eight it was particular because uh it was at the
end of after the end of the season because of the kovid in march 2020 the competition
stopped in france and it was a second game of official game of our season the beginning of
the next season so this day the 15th of august 2020 we know that playing a guardiola's team
means that you will have maybe 30 percent ball possession to to can score and to cut
beat them and the rest of the time you need to to defend well and and very well
and not let them use the spaces particularly in the box we will speak about that after
for that competition i played with the back three antony lopez was the my goalkeeper
and i played with donaire marcelo and marcel the wingers were maxwell corner who is a forward
normally and leo dubois in the midfield we played with three players bruno di maresch useem awar
who did a fantastic final eight and uh a young a very young one uh maxson who is for him uh
maybe the second game in in championship memphis depay how captain and carl tocoy can a very very
interesting fast attacker we expected manchester city in a 4-3-3 like this or 4-2-3-1 like this
but when they give us one hour before the game the first 11 it was not possible for us to
to know that they they will play with uh with fernandinho in a back three
on the right so we did we discovered that surprise uh just uh before the whistle of the referee
so they played with ederson walker cancello eric garcia in the center of the backfield laporte and
fernandinho was the the right center back after that they played with rodri gundogan sterling
gabriel jesus and for me the best player of this team kevin de bruyne we prepared this game with
uh clear instructions like you can see the density the defensive density and offensive density of my
players is in the center so for us the instruction for my forwards was put the game on the side
don't let play rodri okay and after well defend on the side and be careful to to this passes from
the side to the box with uh de bruyne gabriel jesus or sterling on on the left we know that
better for her than the central defender have the ball
than gundogan rodri or kevin de bruyne who are very creative players
the other instruction was uh because we know that we knew that we we had only
30 persons uh ball possession recovery of the ball playing back to the defense so the the first
the first goal whether something like that high defense because they play always high they have a
good ball possession when they lose the ball there is a big counter pressing from manchester
city so the first goal marcelo long ball for tokui kambi who was not offside with eric garcia edelson
goes from the ball and corner follow very well the the action he had the ball here and he cut score
uh for the first goal just here the var confirmed that was not offside so the second part of the
plan was very good about eating them in the spaces behind the the back of their defense
half time one wonder for us and after five million is the second um in the second half uh happened
um what what we knew at the half time at the halftime i told my player they can't uh stay like
this with the back three so they will change maybe at the beginning of the second half or maybe later
mares enter take off fernandinho and mares enter on the right side of the attack of manchester city
and he put the brain in a four two three one like this um like i told you the the
the big quality there are a lot of qualities but the big quality of city is to can to complain
the spaces in the box so they did like this mares with with sterling mares ball on the on the spaces
sterling uh with with donaire uh defending but but debris came here in the in the back in and
uh and uh sterling gave him the ball for the one one so typical manchester city offensive action
but uh like i told to my player the the opponent had the right to play well so it's not always our
fault or our mistake after that i remember i take off dubois who was in difficulty in
the right side i put tete a physical one my first substitute was mendes a stronger midfield
stronger than bruno guimaraes and after that i pulled tete and i put dembele in the match
on the one one because it was necessary for us to have a two quick player in the front
it was one one until uh 75 minutes 75 when when dembele and tete enters for us
uh because like i told you uh i needed some quick player and and fresh player in the in
the in my attack the second goal was a recover from maybe maxson's cacre
la port had the ball he tried to play with the midfield kakre recovered the ball give to awar
and after a world play in the spaces tokuykombi was offside but he didn't touch the ball and uh
and dembele was uh faster than than laporte and one to one against ederson it was 2-1 for us so it
was like we thought the the game the possibility of it them back back to the to their defense
one of the key moments of the of the game was the the very big opportunity for sterling
just before we scored this the third goal with a wisdom belly but in football it's always like like
this uh when one team has a big opportunity like sterling if they miss this opportunity in the in
the few minutes after this opportunity there is a big danger for the team who misses this action
so one of the key moments was that sterling in front of the goal with that goalkeeper without no
one any a kick over the bar in football you need to have a little chance also to to to win but we
can push the chance in in our side the third goal came in a in a long ball from uh from antoni lopez
maybe dembele fighting in the air and after red adelaide recovered the ball
and uh and go with the ball with dembele with hour maybe and playing a four against three
pass from rena delay to hour shoot at the goal and uh and anderson let the
ball go and uh and um and dabeli scored his second goal and the third for us
it was clear that the game was was finished we we played well and in the end and we knew that
maybe for city it was also a psychological problem because they tried to win these champions
the years before it was quite difficult for them to to go to semi-final so maybe we it was also uh
an important thing for us to be all the time all the game in the in the in the score because we
we lead the game win one one we will again the the game with two one and uh in the psychological
point it was very very good for us to play like this to lead like this the match to have success
in this opportunity so for leon is a it's a it's a historic game for for sure an historic result you