27 November 2024
Pep Guardiola's Manchester City blew a 3-0 lead against Feyenoord in the Champions League, in what was the first match in history to see a side lose after leading by 3 goals to none in the 75th minute. It does end the losing streak of five games, but now it is six games without a win, marking the worst run for Manchester City’s coach. Their woes continue, with City failing to win a match after holding a three-goal lead for the first time in 35 years.
This is a lot to unpack, especially considering what is currently happening with City, with pundits officially calling this a disaster for City right now.
That’s 17 goals now—yes, we’re counting—conceded over six games. This game wasn’t competitive until it suddenly became competitive. At 3-1, you would expect experienced players—Champions League winners and Premier League champions—to take the threat out of the game, leave no spaces, and avoid further mistakes. Elite-level players shouldn’t panic at 3-1 or even 3-2, but that’s exactly what happened. Panic stations have set into this Manchester City side.
Defensively, things are a mess. Joško Gvardiol, who is a good player, is going through a tough time and making repeated mistakes. In this match, he was involved in the second goal they conceded. Over the weekend against Tottenham, he made two glaring errors. Now, with a tough match at Anfield against Liverpool on Sunday, questions must be asked about the manager’s decisions. Does Guardiola stick with these defensive players? Should Nathan Aké move to left-back, and does Gvardiol need to be taken out of the lineup to regain his confidence? Right now, any team of reasonable quality can get at Manchester City. Playing like this, they’ve got no chance of making a comeback in the Premier League, let alone going all the way in the Champions League. And to think we wouldn’t have said this five or six weeks ago!
When the game started, City looked like they were in control, especially being at home. You expect them to bounce back after the weekend. Watching them play against Feyenoord, a team from the Dutch league, you would think this should be manageable for City. Dutch football is known for its style and technicality, but City should have the upper hand. City started strong, and Feyenoord seemed to struggle early on. However, things started falling apart after 70 minutes. Guardiola substituted three players—Kevin De Bruyne, Nathan Aké, and İlkay Gündoğan all came off, with fresh players coming on. These changes seemed to indicate that Guardiola believed the game was in hand.
Yet, within five minutes of those substitutions, City began crumbling. Feyenoord showed great character, something they are well-known for in Dutch football.
It wasn’t just the changes that led to City’s downfall. Gvardiol made a couple of costly errors. For the first goal, he lobbed the ball into no man’s land. It was unclear if he was aiming for Aké or trying to pass it back to Ederson. In the end, it landed nowhere, and Feyenoord capitalized. Then for the second goal, Gvardiol made another mistake, choosing a risky pass into the middle, which was intercepted just 10 yards outside City’s penalty area. These are the kinds of errors that are killing them defensively."
It is an UNBELIEVABLE EVENING- Feyenoord Coach Brian Priske
The Danish head coach of Eredivisie club Feyenoord, Brian Priske, former player, said in the press conference after the match:
"If you are from Feyenoord Rotterdam, it is an unbelievable evening, 3-0 down away from home against, for me, still the best team in the world.
Obviously you always believe, but it was a difficult game. The first 25 minutes, they played fast football, we were not as tight as we wanted, ended up too low.
At 3-0 down, you definitely think this is going to be long night, tough evening, but without any tactical [changes], just individual quality, moments, gave us the draw.
The players stayed in the game, kept pushing and kept believing. I can only praise them."
