Fans Are Split On Atletico Madrid's 5-5-0 Formation Against Manchester City

Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid split opinion on social media, after the Spanish side set up in a 5-5-0 against Manchester City in the Champions League.

Having beaten Manchester United in the last 16 of Europe's elite club competition, Atletico were back in the north west of England on Tuesday night to take on City in the quarter final first leg.

Whilst United didn't offer much going forward, Atleti's previous win was built around their staunch defence but it was going to have to be much stauncher against Pep Guardiola's team.

City are well known for their attacking prowess, and the biggest struggle for the side from the Spanish capital was keeping the score as close to level as possible to keep themselves in the tie before next week's return to the Wanda Metropolitano.

Fans on social media noticed that Simeone had set up his side with no one upfront and two banks of five, in order to nullify their opponents own tactics.

In fairness to the La Liga champions, their tactics seemed to be working, especially in the first half, as the English champions struggled to create much in the way of clear chances.

At the beginning of the second half the visitors even had a few chances on the break, as whatever was said at half time clearly had an impact.

Even with a few more chances for City, it did look for a while like what Atleti were attempting to do was working, and some people were impressed with the tactics.

With time ticking away, and Simeone looking set to get the 0-0 draw he wanted to take back to Spain next week, Guardiola was able to change the match with a triple substitution.

The two times Champions League winning manager brought on Jack Grealish, Gabriel Jesus and Phil Foden in the 68th minute, and it changed the game.

Just one minute and 20 seconds after coming on, it was Foden who set up Kevin de Bruyne for the only goal of the game.

If they manage to overturn the deficit in the home leg, no Atletico Madrid fans will care how their side played on Tuesday night.

Featured Image Credit: Twitter

Topics: Atletico Madrid, Diego Simeone, La Liga, Manchester City, Champions League, Premier League, Pep Guardiola

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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