In the Zone: How Man City and Real Madrid excelled under pressure
Wednesday, February 12, 2025
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UEFA match observer Gareth Southgate highlighted Manchester City and Real Madrid's ability to manipulate the ball under pressure in their thrilling knockout phase play-off first leg.
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It had five goals and a dramatic late twist but for UEFA match observer Gareth Southgate, what stood out in particular in Tuesday night’s UEFA Champions League knockout phase play-off first leg between Manchester City and Real Madrid was the technical ability on display from the champions of both England and Spain.
As this analysis brought to you by FedEx will highlight, Southgate focused on one particular ability that is essential in elite football today, applauding the way that players on both sides were able to evade pressure and keep the ball moving.
"There were some exceptional individual moments under pressure to manipulate the ball," said Southgate, the former England manager.
For Southgate, to retain the ball under pressure and then progress it is a core skill for the modern footballer and the video below gives two examples, starting with the lead-up to Erling Haaland's opening goal.
When Ederson goes to his left, we see how Kevin De Bruyne, under pressure, requires a single touch before then feeding the pass to Joško Gvardiol who, in turn, takes two touches as he turns away from Rodrygo and delivers the forward pass to Haaland.
This ability is crucial when a team is looking to advance the ball out of a tight spot and into open space.
"It's about developing press-resistant players. For me, it's one of the most impressive improvements in the technical level of the game today. There's the ability to receive, also to 'feel' the pressure, which side it's coming from."
We see it illustrated again in the second clip above which shows Carlo Ancelotti's side moving the ball up the pitch, on their left side. Dani Ceballos, scanning several times over his shoulder, anticipates the arrival of John Stones and flicks the ball forward to Jude Bellingham who turns away from Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva as he shepherds it inside to Vinícius Júnior.
Southgate marvelled at the skill from Vinícius Júnior whose brilliant turn takes him past Rúben Dias before he releases a fabulous pass behind the backline for Kylian Mbappé to run onto before getting in a shot.
As Southgate observed, the skill to usher the ball out of tight spaces is practised on training pitches in 'rondos'. He added: "Those tight possession games or rondos have become so common, and we then see it transferred on to the pitch in these moments."
More tactical analysis
For City manager Josep Guardiola, Madrid's ability to keep the ball flowing was a crucial feature of an impressive attacking display from the holders. "They got close to one another, with a lot of bodies around the ball, and sequences with a lot of passes and always with the threat in behind with such quick players, those four up front," said Guardiola.
Of all the players on the pitch it was Bellingham who produced the most passes under pressure (29), with Phil Foden and Stones highest-ranked for City (21 each). Foden's close control, that ability to manipulate the ball in narrow areas, is another example of what Southgate has highlighted in this analysis and the final clip below shows his 1v1 skills in action as he takes on Ceballos and draws the foul for the home side’s 80th-minute penalty.
For City, there would be a sting in the tail, which brought a first Champions League home defeat since 2018. As for Southgate, this was a night above all which provided a showcase of a key skill, as he reiterated when concluding: "Especially with so many teams now playing man for man, the ability to be able to retain and then progress the ball under pressure is only going to be more and more important."
