In his new role as a UEFA Technical Observer, former Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was on duty at Manchester City's Champions League win at FC Copenhagen this week.
In his Technical report published after City's 3-1 win, Solskjaer went into great detail to explain how City overcame Copenhagen's low block and in-game change of formation to record an important first-leg lead in the last-16.
Central to his analysis was praise of City's three goalscorers - Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden - who all combined to find the space necessary to score three important goals in the tie. ALSO READ: Inside Man City's training ground plan to produce next John Stones ALSO READ: Cole Palmer is proving £42m Man City transfer decision was right "Guardiola's men used the full width of the pitch and played around Copenhagen's shape when they reverted to a 4-3-3," wrote Solskjaer in his report, published on UEFA's website. "And they produced the killer balls, usually to Kevin De Bruyne or Bernardo Silva, who, with perfect timing, were able to run into spaces between the full-back and the centre-half.
It was Phil Foden who put the ball through into space for De Bruyne to put City ahead and the De Bruyne/Bernardo Silva connection which produced City's second. "The home centre-backs managed to stop some of the runs, though with City's quality they still managed to play around the 5-3-2 defensive shape.
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