John Stones has shared some details on how Manchester City were able to thrash Real Madrid in the Champions League last season.
After leaving the Santiago Bernabeu with a 1-1 draw in the first leg of their semi-final ties against the Spanish club, the Citizens blasted Carlo Ancelotti’s side away at the Etihad Stadium in the second leg with a 4-0 scoreline to secure their place in the final.
With City then going on to win the Champions League by beating Inter Milan in the final and now being on the hunt to regain the title, one player, who played a pivotal role in their European success last season, has shared some insight into that impressive win at the Etihad against Real.
Stones shares details on City’s win over Real
Speaking in a recent episode of the Official Man City Podcast, Stones had this to say about City’s emphatic win over Real and how it all panned out.
He said: “The way they set up, they allowed us to do that with [Toni] Kroos and [Luka] Modric following Kevin [De Bruyne] and Bernardo [Silva] on the other side.
“They man-marked them and created so much space for me and Rodri to get to the 18-yard box. Once we got there it was about trying to move them about and out of their zone to create space.
“Kevin is the best in the world at making these runs in behind to cross the ball. We were patient once we got there. Sometimes I find a lot of my runs when we’re high up the pitch, my movements are not to get the ball but to create space for other guys. My quality is not as good as theirs up there and I know that, I want to get them on the ball and let them do their thing.”
Looking back over this significant match in City’s previous season, the home side ended up having 59% possession and 16 shots at goal in total, with eight being on target.
They also made significantly more passes (618 vs 421) than their Spanish visitors, who walked away with an overall team rating of 6.33/10 from SofaScore, much lower than City’s rating of 7.54/10.
This makes it easy to see that Pep Guardiola’s side were completely dominant and thoroughly deserved to go through to the final they ended up winning.
Now that Stones has shed some light on how his side were able to demolish and dismantle the former reigning European champions, this should make it clear how Guardiola and his players are able to find the best ways to win games based on what their opponents are doing and how they can exploit them.
