A spineless Manchester City side conceded a three-goal lead at home on Tuesday night, as they drew 3-3 with Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League.
Coming off the back of five straight defeats in all competitions, Pep Guardiola’s City squad were desperate for a result as they welcomed the Eredivise champions to the Etihad Stadium on matchday five of Europe’s premier club competition.
Despite the lack of goals in the first-half, City were the team on top with a couple of efforts from Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland in particular, but a foul inside the penalty area would give the hosts what they were craving just before the break.
Making no mistake from 12 yards, the Norway international struck home his 50th goal contribution in the competition, giving the blues a lead just before the break, which was a fair reflection of the first-half.
Despite not playing at their scintillating best in the first half, the blues came flying out the blocks after the restart, with an early goal via a deflected effort from Ilkay Gundogan doubling Manchester City’s advantage.
Erling Haaland grabbed a second shortly after, following a bit of individual brilliance from Matheus Nunes who set the Norwegian up, giving Manchester City a seemingly unassailable lead.
With Sunday afternoon’s crucial fixture at Anfield against Liverpool in mind, Pep Guardiola made changes as Manchester City strolled to a comfortable and much needed victory, or so it seemed.
A mistake at the back from Josko Gvardiol gave the away side a bit of life, as the Dutch side pounced on the error and began to mount their comeback after 75 minutes.
Seven minutes later with the visitors having their tail between their legs, a lofted ball into the Manchester City penalty area found Jordan Lotomba, whose cross-cum-shot found its way to Santi Gimenez, who had the simplest of tasks to poke it into an empty net. 3-2.
A nervy Etihad watched on in disbelief, before another ball over the top of the Manchester City defence caused chaos at the back, as Igor Paixao butted the ball past an on-rushing Ederson, before the Brazilian dinked one to the back stick where David Hancko put the final nail in the coffin.
A complete capitulation for Manchester City, who now find themselves in 15th position in the competition and with a massive likelihood of falling further down after the completion of Wednesday’s fixtures.
With that being said, here are Five Things We Learned from the disappointing draw at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night!
Matheus Nunes MUST start in midfield
Amidst a barrage of tired legs and lethargic performances, Matheus Nunes is a shining light which is keeping the hopes of a return to form alive, but the Portuguese midfielder is being used out of position at present.
Nunes offers something entirely different to his co-stars currently, with his running power a massive positive and something in which Pep Guardiola must utilise if he wishes to turn things around for the club.
With league leaders Liverpool looming on Sunday, the current midfield set-up is in critical danger of being overrun by Arne Slot’s side, which is why Pep Guardiola has to lean on Matheus Nunes to bolster the energy in midfield to counter it.
The Champions of England with a quitters mentality?
Giving up a lead in any football match is always a disappointing outcome, but the manner in which Manchester City forfeited the three points on Tuesday evening will certainly alarm the blues boss.
After the second goal for Feyenoord, there was an air of inevitability in regard to the third goal which soon followed, which is something nobody can say about a Pep Guardiola side and certainly not his Manchester City teams.
Winning the Premier League title four times on the spin requires an enormous amount of effort, but also an incredible winning mentality, but the players on the pitch are currently demonstrating a complete lack of that, hence the imperiously disappointing run of form.
A kick up the backside or a real cause for concern?
City’s first game without a win, six matches ago, ignited zero concern across the camp, but a winless month later and we are talking about a mini crisis for the blues as they struggle in all departments.
Given the number of matches without victory and the manner of some of the defeats, at what point does it turn from a kick up the backside into a case of making significant changes within the club?
City continue to rip up the record books!
Manchester City’s 3-3 draw saw the blues become the first side in UEFA Champions League HISTORY to be leading a match by three goals in the 75th minute and fail to win. An unwanted record.
Following the second goal, it ensured that Manchester City had conceded two or more goals in six consecutive games, for the first time since the 1960’s. Yes, 60 years ago.
Does it get better or worse now?
Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace, Juventus, Manchester United, Aston Villa. The next six fixtures for Manchester City, as they look to overturn this wretched run of form, so surely it can only get worse from here on out?
City are the champions for a reason, and there is no doubt the inquests will go on throughout the night, but there is no hiding from that set of fixtures, with absolutely no respite for the blues as they look to recover their form as well as their pride moving forward.
