The path to becoming a football legend began with being ousted from Carrington by Manchester United.

In the stalemate, the first person to step forward and change the situation was Aguero.

Regardless of the final result of the match, Ah Kun was in the limelight for at least 45 minutes.

This is quite rare since he joined the team; most of the time, Lin Yi has been the one to steal the spotlight at Manchester City.

"Isn't bro awesome? Come on! Use the most fancy words you can think of to praise me!" Aguero stood on tiptoe and hugged Lin Yi, looking like a child asking for a present on Children's Day.

"You're something else!" Considering Aguero's recent flare-up, Lin Yi unusually refrained from refusing to offend him.

Having received the highest level of courtesy among men, Aguero was extremely satisfied. His physical fatigue seemed to have vanished, even though this half of the game had taken much longer than usual.

Back in the locker room, Pellegrini specifically praised Aguero's positive attitude in the first half and asked everyone to learn from him.

Although Pellegrini's praise of himself was much more eloquent than Lin Yi's, and it was done in front of everyone, Aguero still felt that it wasn't as satisfying as Lin Yi's praise.

In addition to showering him with praise, Pellegrini also thoughtfully inquired about Aguero's physical condition.

Aguero, who was in a state of high excitement, didn't feel tired and waved his hand to indicate to the head coach that there was no need to worry.

After spending most of the time praising and showing concern for Aguero, Pellegrini made a personnel change in the final moments of halftime.

Given the situation in the first half, the Chilean engineers simply substituted the more technically skilled Nasri with the more aggressive Milner.

As the team leading in the score, Pellegrini was happy to see the two sides continue to be deadlocked in the second half.

If Manchester City can keep Bayern's attacking system in check and successfully shut out their opponents, they will have a much better chance in the second leg against a Bayern side that has not scored an away goal.

Bayern did not make any substitutions and continued to use the same lineup as at the start of the game.

This, however, alerted Pellegrini, who did not believe Heynckes would sit idly by and wait for his doom.

With Robben and Ribery clearly limited, how does Bayern plan to break the deadlock without making any adjustments?

Soon, Pellegrini noticed something amiss.

In the second half, Bayern Munich's attacks still started from both flanks, and Kroos would still pass the ball to Robben or Ribery first.

In the past, regardless of which wing they switched to, the Flying Man and Scarface primarily focused on dribbling inside and disrupting the opponent's defense with their strong individual abilities.

However, the two made significant changes in the second half. After switching positions, Robben, whose left foot is dominant, moved to the left wing, while Ribery, who is right-footed, moved to the right wing.

After gaining possession, they tended to move to the outside, and unless there was an obvious opportunity to cut inside, they would not take the risk and instead simply cross the ball.

Seeing the opponent's tactical choice, Pellegrini's worries lessened somewhat.

On the one hand, Robben and Ribery are both explosive players with strong individual combat capabilities. Now they are forced to cross the ball from the wing, which poses a much smaller threat to Manchester City.

On the other hand, Manchester City's center-back pairing of Kompany and Lescott, standing at 190cm and 191cm respectively, along with Joe Hart at 194cm, makes their overall aerial defense the best in England, and they are not afraid of opponents' aerial bombardment.

After observing for a few more minutes, Pellegrini further confirmed his judgment: Bayern's adjusted wing crossing tactics did not have an immediate effect.

Although Bayern Munich also has a physically imposing classic center forward, Mario Gomez, he is alone and struggles to win possession when double-teamed by Manchester City's two tall center-backs.

Robben and Ribery's various attempts on the flanks, whether it was going down the byline or crossing directly from a 45-degree angle, were basically all won by Manchester City in the first ball.

Time passed by in the 60 minutes, and Heynckes remained calm and composed, showing no intention of making any adjustments. It seemed he was determined to stick to his guns.

Pellegrini felt a strong urge to try and score another goal against Bayern, since the opponent's attack wasn't too threatening. He wondered if he could be bolder and try to score another goal against Bayern, then take a two-goal lead and comfortably visit the Allianz Arena.

Just as Pellegrini was hesitating, Bayern's attack came again.

This time, Robben had the ball, and his old rival Lin Yi was in front of him.

Pellegrini thought the defensive setup in the first half was effective, so he told Lin Yi and Milner that whenever Robben and Ribery switched positions, they would switch with them.

The same applies to Toure's defensive support; his main focus is to keep Ribery under control, no matter which side the opponent is on.

Besides Lin Yi, Robben also has to face an Aguero who is extremely excited and on steroids.

With Ah Kun as his helper, Lin Yi didn't need to rush to the front. He retreated deep into the ground, giving himself the opportunity to calmly observe Robben's movements.

As a result, it became difficult for Robben to even get to the byline, because he was not faster and he was not confident that he could overpower Lin Yi under Aguero's relentless interference.

After several failed attempts, the Flying Dutchman stopped being stubborn and simply used a feint to deceive Aguero's center of gravity before immediately lobbing the ball into the penalty area.

Robben's cross was quite far from the Manchester City goal, and the quality of the cross was also poor. The slow ball speed gave Kompany and Lescott plenty of time to prepare.

Lescott immediately found Gomez and pressed himself against him to distract him, while his partner Kompany was responsible for securing the first landing spot.

This was the same approach they used to defend against crosses in previous matches, and the two players had successfully limited Gomez in that same way.

The Bundesliga has produced a large number of strikers who were not very famous, but whose strength was outstanding during their peak.

For example, Elton, the "Ball Lightning," in the 2003-04 season, was the first foreign player to win the German Footballer of the Year award.

Take Wolfsburg's Grafite, for example. A late bloomer, he delivered a terrifying record of 28 goals in 25 games during his peak season.

This season was Mario Gomez's peak year, when he made 29 appearances for Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga and scored 25 goals.

In the Champions League, he scored 11 goals in 10 matches with an astonishing efficiency, second only to Lin Yi who scored 13 goals, surpassing superstars such as Messi, Benzema, and Cristiano Ronaldo to rank second in the Champions League top scorer list.

Super Mario in top form is precisely what Heynckes relies on to consistently deliver crosses from the flanks.

Lescott and Kompany thought they would easily get out of trouble this time, just like before, but little did they know that Gomez had figured out how the two of them worked together.

He suddenly exerted his strength, broke free from Lescott's grasp, took two steps to run up, and leaped into the air, overpowering Manchester City captain Kompany and taking the first landing point.

Robben's cross wasn't fast, but thanks to Gomez's core strength, the ball accelerated for a moment, flying into the goal before Joe Hart could reach out to block it.

The air raid sirens sounded too late; German Gomez had already taken control of the skies over England and dropped a heavy bomb over Manchester.

Bayern Munich's persistence paid off, and the score was tied at 1-1.