Pelligrini’s Substitutions
Manchester City after going down to ten men were exposed time and again especially along their left hand side as Barcelona were intent on increasing their lead. Playing at home and down to ten men,it made little sense for City to go on the attack as the danger of conceding an extra away goal was too high. Pelligrini took off Kolarov and Navas and brought on Lescott and Nasri and as expected Dani Alves,free finally from the attention of two opposing left backs in tandem grabbed the second goal.
Martino’s substitutions
Manchester City towards the end,were defending quite narrow but Barcelona weren’t playing with any natural wingers. Pedro who didn’t feature from the start must be hard done by Tata’s decision not to sub him on during the match. Neymar after coming on had a good run out,supplying the ball to Alves for the second goal. But of course the star man was Lionel Messi who with his latest Adidas boots moved closer to Raul’s all time record of Champions League goals.
Wenger’s Dilemma
Against a possession hogging Bayern side,Wenger will be hoping to use pace on his flanks to attack the Bayern defence and exploit the space in behind the full backs. If at all there is a weak spot in Bayern’s lineup,it is Rafinha the right back. So Santi Cazorla and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain are shoe-ins for the wingers spot. For the number 10 spot,you may think Mesut Ozil is a sureshot. But to stop Bayern,one needs to stop their talisman Philip Lahm operating as the holding man. And Ozil is possibly one of the worst Number 10s in the world when it comes to defensive duties,so Wenger may opt to give Rosicky a start so that Arsenal can start pressing from the front. Ozil interestingly has been dropped by Mourinho many times in his battle against Pep’s Barcelona maybe Arsene Wenger will do the same again. Another famous example of a number 10 being dropped in a big tie was Wayne Rooney against Real Madrid and that move by Ferguson was justified by Welbeck’s performance against Xabi Alonso
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