Real Madrid have Arsenal and Mikel Arteta to thank for beating Manchester City in Champions League | OneFootball

Real Madrid managed to pull off what for many seemed unthinkable on Wednesday night, knocking Manchester City out on home soil. Los Blancos lasted all the way to penalties, and took their chance when they had it, inspired by Andriy Lunin, but they were also inspired by Mikel Arteta.

According to Marca in Madrid, the leading two analysts at Real Madrid, assistant coach Davide Ancelotti and fitness coach Francesco Mauri, spent hours studying ways to stymy Pep Guardiola’s side. The method they settled on was Mikel Arteta’s, borrowed from Arsenal‘s 0-0 draw with City on the 31st of April. Although Carlo Ancelotti takes all the decisions, his son and Mauri tend to present the options to him, and it came off in the quarter-finals.

They could well have had to go up against Arteta’s tactics themselves in the semi-finals, were it not for a Joshua Kimmich header at the Allianz Arena, meaning Bayern Munich will be their opponents in the semi-finals. There is plenty of evidence on tape about how to beat Bayern this season, as shown most recently by Heidenheim. However Thomas Tuchel has shown he has an appreciation of European football not too far behind the likes of Guardiola and Ancelotti.

Image via Oscar J. Barroso / AFP7 / Europa Press