Klopp wins with Liverpool: "That's great nonsense"

Same countries, different customs.

The two English football heavyweights won their first legs in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.

Manchester City defeated Atlético Madrid 1-0 at home, Liverpool FC beat Benfica Lisbon 3-1.

But while Jürgen Klopp smiled brightly during the away win in Portugal and was more than halfway to the semi-finals, Pep Guardiola let off steam.

After the winning goal, the Manchester coach threw an open water bottle through the air.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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The Catalan showed emotion in the game of nerves against the eternal tormentors of Atlético Madrid.

No wonder, after all, there is a lot at stake for City.

Finally it should work.

Finally, the pot of the premier class should be placed in the showcase in Manchester.

Despite the money from Abu Dhabi, this has not worked out so far.

City came close last May.

But then Guardiola had another special idea in a special game before the final against Chelsea and Thomas Tuchel, which brought the team to its ruin.

Without a defensive midfielder, Manchester lost 0-1.

This time Guardiola resisted his impulse to throw in an extravagance.

In the traditional system, Manchester City played the bulwark from Madrid with 71 percent ball possession.

This held up for a long time, but revealed a crucial gap.

In the 70th minute, Kevin De Bruyne carried after a fine pass from Phil Foden, who had just come on as a substitute.

"It was a perfect assist and Kevin's finish was brilliant," said Guardiola.

He emptied his bottle in the air in already rainy Manchester to a relieved cheer on the sidelines.

After that, further city chances remained unused.

Minimalism a la Simeone

The starting position for the second leg next Wednesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN) is good, but not very good, especially since the special value of away goals has ceased to exist this season.

It's just a one-goal lead for the English champions when they travel to Spain next week.

Then Atlético will have to do a little more than on Tuesday.

In any case, with the same record it will not be enough to progress: no corner, no shot on goal, no goal.

But Atlético is known for its minimalism a la Simeone.

In Spain they even invented their own word for it,

.

Cholo is the nickname of Atlético coach Diego Simeone.

He has been coaching the club he once played for since 2011.

And he made sure that the team got an unmistakable signature, even if different players kept coming over the years.

means defensive stability, intense play, fighting for every meter, tactical fidelity, pragmatism, the ability to suffer and the eternal belief in success.

And so it goes without saying that no Atlético player will not believe in progressing.

Closer to the semi-finals than Manchester City and Atlético is Liverpool FC.

Jürgen Klopp's side won 3-1 at Benfica in the parallel game.

After a clearly superior first half with goals from Ibrahima Konaté with a header after a corner (17th minute) and Sadio Mané, who used an assist from Luis Díaz after a sensational diagonal ball from Trent Alexander-Arnold (34th), the English came under again Print.

When the otherwise strong former Leipzig Konaté hit the ball, Darwin Núñez shortened (49th).

But Díaz scored just before the end to make it 3-1 for Liverpool.