It wasn't a classic by any means, but Manchester City claimed a 1-0 victory over visiting Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their 2021-22 UEFA Champions League quarterfinal tie on Tuesday.
The score was hardly indicative of the run of play, as City held 71 percent of the possession and fired 15 shots towards Jan Oblak's goal (two on target). However, Atletico's trademark stubborn defensive style nearly won on the day as the hosts were hard-pressed to create many clear-cut chances, despite the lopsided statistics in City's favour.
Unsurprisingly, the visitors spent most of the match in a defensive set-up and actually did not muster a single shot over the 90 minutes. Instead, they frustrated City's high-octane attackers for over an hour, until a moment of brilliance from Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne created the game's lone goal in the 70th minute, with De Bruyne executing a tidy finish past Oblak.
The lone strike was all City needed to secure the first-leg victory, although the Sky Blues seemed eager to push for a second in the dying minutes. Ultimately, nothing else came to fruition for either side, with the teams now headed to Madrid for next week's second leg.
Meanwhile in Tuesday's other Champions League match, Liverpool put themselves in the driver's seat of their quarterfinal with Benfica by grabbing a 3-1 win at the Estádio da Luz. Ibrahima Konaté, Sadio Mané and Luis Díaz were on the mark for the visiting Reds, with Darwin Núñez scoring for Benfica.