Juventus 2, Manchester City 0
Manchester City are now in danger of Champions League elimination after slumping to a 2-0 defeat at Juventus.
Embed from Getty ImagesDespite dominating possession they were comfortably beaten by Dusan Valhovic’s header and Weston McKennie’s volley in the second half of the game.
The Blues have now won just one game in their last ten, drawing twice and losing seven, and letting in 23 goals in that time (a record in Europe’s big five leagues) while only scoring 12.
They are already out of the Carabao Cup and even a visit from Salford City in January looks a challenge after another poor performance – this time in Italy.
And captain Kyle Walker – who has been responsible for some of the individual errors leading to goals this term – has looked his age after City have only won two of the games in which he has started.
All of this means that City, who have never beaten Juventus and are now 22nd in the new Champions League Swiss Format, may be lucky to qualify for the extra stage knockout round.
The trip to Paris St Germain – who are also struggling to qualify for the knockout phase – is now a key game in mid January and the final group game against Club Brugge may hold the key to City’s final fate in this season’s competition.
It’s well known that injuries have decimated an already small squad which was made notably smaller by the departure of Julian Alvarez to Atletico Madrid and a season-ending injury to Rodri at the start of the season.
But the latest defeat saw City give up more goals thanks to errors at the back.
Josko Gvardiol gave the ball away to allow Kenan Yildiz to find Vlahovic for the opening goal early in the second half after Ederson had parried away an effort from Federico Gatti.
And it was two American substitutes for the Italians – Timothy Weah – son of Liberia President and former City player George – who set up Weston McKennie for the coup de grace after City were again sliced apart after losing the ball.
And to top it all off some of the travelling City fans who made the trip to Italy and wanted to leave early after the second goal were refused permission to leave until after the game was over – they had to suffer until the end with the die-hards.