Man City’s fall from grace leaves them at risk of ultimate Champions League embarrassment

It amounts to miserable seven for Pep Guardiola. The manager who started this season expected to secure his seventh Premier League title has instead now lost seven of his last 10 games. The team who used to top their Champions League group on an annual basis are now 22nd in an expanded pool. There will be no top-eight finish for Manchester City. The worst-case scenario is there will not even be a February play-off. Out of the Premier League title race, they could be out of the Champions League altogether.

Suddenly, City are imperilled, at risk of the ultimate embarrassment of missing out on a top-24 spot. Aims have been downgraded: to sneak into the knockout stage by the back door. “It’s the target, we need one point, three points,” said Guardiola. Which, it is safe to say, was scarcely the likely scenario when City began their campaign top of the Uefa coefficient, joint favourites for the tournament with Real Madrid. But a blip has turned into the deepest of slumps, one that Guardiola has not experienced before. “Of course I question myself,” he said. “I am incredibly honest.” He has a tendency to judge games by performances and claimed: “We played really good.” They still lost.    

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Juventus were the latest to capitalise on City’s weakness and, in the process, to improve their own fortunes. A glamour game was a bottom-half clash, 22nd against 20th. But Dusan Vlahovic’s header and Weston McKennie’s volley elevated Juve to 14th, above City and Real Madrid. There may be life in the Old Lady, if not necessarily in City’s old dogs.

Juventus earned victory, a team with less possession but more ambition taking their chances to secure the biggest scalp of Thiago Motta’s reign. Yet City were again complicit in their own downfall. There were some common denominators with recent defeats. The opener was an awful goal to concede. Ederson and Josko Gvardiol, the culprits in Feyenoord’s three-goal fightback two weeks ago, were involved again. Neither will savour the action replays. The second simply showed that a younger Juventus side were faster and fresher. City could not keep up – or track back – when they surged forward. “We have to chase every time 50 or 60 metres backwards. That’s not what we’re built for,” said Ilkay Gundogan. “At the moment it feels like every attack we concede is so dangerous. It’s just not working for us.”

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A game that began with them seeking to exercise control, dominating the ball in the first half with Jack Grealish the latest to be reinvented as a Rodri replacement of sorts as he started deep in the midfield, ended with a further indication that none of Guardiola’s supposed solutions work right now. City could reflect on one golden chance, Kevin de Bruyne supplying a deft, defence-splitting pass for Erling Haaland, whose attempt to dink his shot over Michele Di Gregorio failed. Yet it is also notable that it came after 39 minutes and was their first attack of note. We missed the last pass, the last action,” rued Guardiola. City did not play poorly before the break but for too long, they did too little.

And Juventus made them pay. Kenan Yildiz had been the brightest player in the first half, whipping a shot just wide. He played a part in the first goal, too. But in a game waiting for someone to take the initiative, the instigator, the man whose boldness led to a breakthrough, was the centre-back Federico Gatti, who strolled forward, stayed in the City box and produced a spectacular scissor kick that Ederson saved. The ensuing goal would not have happened without him; or without Gvardiol, who failed to clear, allowing Yildiz to cross and Vlahovic to head. The recalled Ederson, picked for the first time since Feyenoord, somewhat strangely tried to chest the ball off the line. He was behind it and the goal stood.

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When Juventus doubled their advantage, it was a reward for decisive substitutions. Motta brought on Timothy Weah and McKennie and the two Americans combined for the goal. As Juventus broke, exposing a hole in City’s midfield, Weah crossed for McKennie to hook in a volley. Weah, the son of the former City striker George, had made a swift impact. It underlined a contrast between the managers: while Motta moved, Guardiola was passive, making no changes while his midfield contained a 33-year-old and a 34-year-old, underlined the contrast.

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In their defence, the veterans had come the closest to an equaliser, De Bruyne shooting wide from distance, Gundogan drawing a second fine save from Di Gregorio. In City’s defence, too, they had only lost one of their previous 28 Champions League matches, penalty shootouts aside. But while Guardiola began with seven of the team who started the 2023 final – and an eighth, Kyle Walker, who came off the bench then – the win in Istanbul felt still more distant. Guardiola looked glum on the touchline, a manager who often has too many ideas seeming to run out of them. His team became increasingly fractious, Grealish and Bernardo Silva picking up cautions for displays of frustration. “When we turn this around we will not forget this period,” said Guardiola. But they are mired in a malaise, losing again.

And in a fixture list that has become an obstacle course, where embarrassment appears an ever-present risk, it is a Manchester derby next. In the Champions League, it is Paris Saint-Germain, the loser perhaps becoming the biggest-name casualty of the group stage. And if City, winners of the tournament 18 months ago, the side who started the season top of the Uefa coefficients, suffer the early exit, it would represent a remarkable fall from grace. And yet, in this form, it feels very possible.