Rodri has moved to praise Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland for their excellent work in creating Manchester City's crucial second goal against Bayern Munich.
City took a huge step in advancing to the Champions League semi-finals with an emphatic 3-0 win over Bayern on Tuesday night. Yet, despite the dominant scoreline the game was evenly matched until the Blues ran away with it in the final 20 minutes.
Pep Guardiola's side were the better team throughout in a perfect display but Bayern certainly had their fair share of chances. The Blues took the lead when Rodri himself scored a screamer in the first half.
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Bayern came out guns blazing after the break, though, and had to rely on Ederson to keep Leroy Sane's stinging shots out while Ruben Dias and Nathan Ake were forced to make several crucial blocks. The Bundesliga champions were turning the screw until City broke their resolve by doubling their lead.
The mistake-prone Dayot Upamecano was caught out by a relentless Grealish and dispossessed after a sloppy touch. The No.10 backheeled it to Haaland who, instead of shooting when he had the chance, clipped an excellent cross into the path of Bernardo Silva to head home.
Rodri made sure to compliment the pair for their excellent work. "I think sometimes we have to understand we can not have 80 per cent of the possession," he told BT Sport.
"They played two and they have talented players to keep the ball, we feel comfortable with the ball but we understood perfectly what the game was. We wait the moment, Jack was great in the second goal and Erling, the fact he's not used to cross sometimes, he looked so well for Bernardo and 2-0 was a good gap there in the game. But as you see we want more and we score the three, could have scored the four but it was a great result."
It was a special night for Rodri as his remarkable, curling strike with his weaker foot was his first Champions League goal. He was delighted with the strike (and his sliding celebration in the Manchester rain) but was even more pleased with his side's excellent defensive display.
"Very special for me of course with a good goal and the first goal in the Champions League to help the team," he said on the strike. "I think we were struggling a bit, they showed us their weapons. They're a great, great team and I think that gave us a bit of confidence to keep going. I'm so, so happy.
"When it rains you have to take advantage. I used to see the Premier League they do this slide, in Spain you can not do it as there's no water.
"It's a great result for us. Not just the result, the fact the team played, the effort we all made. It's the end of the season and it's quite remarkable right now the intensity, the desire we have to go to every battle. For me, the key today was the defensive side, we were great and we understood perfectly how to punish them."
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