PARIS: Kevin De Bruyne finally broke Atletico Madrid’s stubborn resistance, scoring the only goal to give Manchester City a 1-0 win in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.

Atletico had clearly travelled to England with the aim of simply denying Pep Guardiola’s side opportunities and City spent much of the night banging their heads against the red and white wall of their opponents’ massed defence at the Etihad Stadium.

After a tight 70 minutes, City found their way through Atletico’s tough rearguard helped by Phil Foden’s vision. Just 79 seconds after coming off the bench, Foden slid in a sublime through-ball and De Bruyne raced through to fire in a low shot from a tight angle to finally reward City for their territorial dominance.

“We knew it was going to be pretty tough to create some opportunities,” De Bruyne said. “The first half was tight, but we didn’t give anything away and in the second half had a couple of chances. It was good that we took one.”

The second leg will be held at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid next Wednesday but before then City have a crucial clash at home to Premier League title rivals Liverpool on Sunday. Three days after the second leg, City face Liverpool again in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley.

Even a 1-0 lead going to Madrid is tough,” Guardiola said after the start of a season-defining 11 days for his treble-chasing side. “We have to control our emotions. It will be a good test for us, our maturity. We will try to score and win the game.”

Six-time European champions Liverpool took a firm grip of their tie with Benfica as goals from Ibrahima Konate, Sadio Mane and Luis Diaz earned them a 3-1 victory in Lisbon in the night’s other quarter-final first leg.

Konate nodded in his first Liverpool goal from a corner before Mane tapped home to put the visitors in command at the Estadio da Luz.

Benfica made a game of it early in the second half when a Konate error allowed the lively Darwin Nunez to pull one back, but Diaz, who was superb all night, added a third to put Jurgen Klopp’s team in sight of the semis.

“Coming here and winning an away game in the Champions League is tough,” Klopp said. “Benfica fought for their lives. We opened the door a little bit for them. We scored a third one and I think everyone agrees we could and should have scored more.”

Liverpool will be confident of finishing the job at Anfield next week, with Klopp comfortable enough to take off Mohamed Salah, Mane and Thiago Alcantara after an hour.

Still, the Reds passed the latest test in their bid for an unprecedented quadruple of trophies. They have already won the English League Cup, are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, and are one point behind leaders Manchester City in the Premier League, who they face on Sunday in what could prove to be the decisive match in the neck-and-neck title race.

City will go into that game on the back of a cagey game against Diego Simeone’s Atletico in which they had to eek out a result.

The first half was played at a slow tempo with City controlling most of the ball but, despite having all of their outfield players in the final third at times, being unable to create openings.

De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo both had efforts deflected wide and Aymeric Laporte missed the target with a header.

Ilkay Gundogan shot well over and Rodri had a long-range effort blocked before De Bruyne had a penalty appeal turned down and John Stones also missed.

It was not until the second half that the hosts tried to inject more pace into their play. That did open the game up slightly and Atletico almost capitalised with a couple of breaks from deep. Antoine Griezmann wasted one opening with a poor pass and Marcos Llorente chipped tamely at goalkeeper Ederson from another.

However, City also began to threaten more as Gundogan had an effort deflected wide and Laporte went close with a header.

City appealed for another penalty for a push by Reinildo on Sterling but it was not given. That proved Sterling’s final involvement as Guardiola took him off in the move that changed the game.

Foden, who came on alongside Jack Grealish and Gabriel Jesus, teed up De Bruyne for the goal. He then created another chance for De Bruyne soon after following a tricky run to the byline but this time Atletico had enough players back to block.

“We didn’t play the way we wanted in the first half, we couldn’t break out. It was a bit better after the break but City are the best team in the world. They have scored so many goals at home in the recent past,” Simeone said. “But this is half-time and let’s see how the second game goes in Madrid.”

Liverpool’s convincing victory over Benfica, playing in the quarter-finals for the first time since 2016 after eliminating Ajax in the last 16, may offer Klopp the luxury of rotating players for the return leg next week to keep his side fresh for the FA Cup clash against City.

Konate opened the scoring with a close-range header from a corner and Mane extended Liverpool’s lead from a Diaz assist 30 minutes into what was an one-sided first half, with Salah, Diaz and Naby Keita all passing up great scoring chances.

Yet five minutes after the break, 22-year-old French defender Konate completely missed a cross and allowed in-form Nunez to score and put Benfica back into the game.

The hosts gained in confidence and briefly took charge but former Porto winger Diaz, who never lost a match against their bitter rivals Benfica, scored on the counter-attack after a Keita through ball.

Diogo Jota still had a chance to extend Liverpool’s lead further in added time but Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos denied them a fourth with his left leg in a one-on-one.

“It was a tough game but we had plenty opportunities to score more after the second, couldn’t do that, got sloppy and allowed them to get back into the game lifted by the crowd,” Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson told BT Sport. “A two-goal cushion makes a difference. Hopefully we can get the job done.”

Published in Dawn, April 7th, 2022