So, after defeat against Manchester City, what will Diego Simeone try now? - The Warm-Up

WEDNESDAY'S BIG STORIES Attack 1-0 Defence Ad/> Phil Foden, hey? Phil flippin' Foden. On a night where space and time were almost non-existent, as Atlético Madrid opened up a treacle-black hole in Manchester, Foden sauntered onto the pitch — actually, no, he didn't saunter — he did his stretches and he took his instructions and he ran on. He's a professional.

Champions League'CL always I overthink' — Guardiola jokes about tinkering reputationYESTERDAY AT 13:43 But if he had sauntered, it would have been alright. First touch: he collected the ball, near the edge of the Atlético box, facing his own goal. Then he turned.

And then, as four defenders were dragged towards the little pocket of space he'd found — nature will always Phil a vacuum — he slipped the game's first perfect through ball into the game's first truly dangerous area. One of the surest markers of brilliance is the sense that the rules of engagement simply do not apply. By rights, Foden should have blundered into the exactly the same morass as his colleagues: the spaceless timeless sticky mess of Atlético at their most profoundly Simeone.

Instead, he glided. And Pep Guardiola saw this and was pleased. «Phil has a special quality.

His space in the first steps are massive, he had the composure to make an incredible assist to Kevin. Phil was brilliant, we knew it in the beginning. With Gabriel Jesus and him, we needed to change the game when it was flat.» Flat is an understatement.

The first half made pancakes look Pyrenean. But it was a footballing triumph of sorts: perfectly balanced and utterly evacuated. Atlético kept ten back; City kept four.