Man City squanders 3-0 lead against Feyenoord: Pep Guardiola is scratched

Pep Guardiola’s head looked so scratched, as if he was desperately fighting his way through a dense thorn forest in search of a way out. The crazy 3-3 draw after a 3-0 lead against Feyenoord Rotterdam probably felt pretty physically painful for the Manchester City coach. Things had looked good up until the 75th minute in the Champions League home game on Wednesday evening, but then his team collapsed in astonishing fashion and City’s misery continued. The draw was an addition to the previous five competitive defeats – a negative run that Guardiola has never experienced before.

There were reddened streaks and spots all over his scalp, and he also had a bleeding cut on his nose. But the wounds, which could have been the result of a bar fight with beer bottles, were actually self-inflicted, as Guardiola freely admitted after the game.

He reported tearing his skin with his fingernails. During his description, Guardiola imitated the hand gesture in question and also imitated the horrifying noise. “I want to harm myself,” he said with a pained smile: I want to hurt myself. Then he left the press conference. The statement was probably meant to be sarcastic – although some commentators in England would certainly trust him, due to his perfectionism, to take the crisis so personally that he castigated himself for it. Guardiola and his team have now been waiting for success for more than a month.

The draw against Feyenoord at least stopped the club’s long series of defeats. But apparently the Citizens are so used to constantly losing that even winning a point “felt like a failure” for defender Nathan Aké. City’s appearance was reminiscent of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: As usual for years, the team dominated the match with goals from Erling Haaland (44th minute/penalty, 53rd) and Ilkay Gündogan (50th), but then the catastrophic failures of the previous games were repeated. Anis Hadj Moussa (75th), Santiago Gimenez (82nd) ​​and David Hancko (89th) took advantage of this for the guests’ sensational comeback. Feyenoord is now the first club ever to be able to overcome a three-goal deficit in the last quarter of an hour in the Champions League.

For City, the final phase was like a horror film that the FSK would probably only allow for ages 21 and up. Guardiola and his players seemed almost apathetic and remote-controlled, like actors in their own game who were following a mean script. When the first goal was conceded, defender Josko Gvardiol passed the ball into the opponent’s path, then goalkeeper Ederson let a cross pass from an impossible angle – and shortly afterwards he dived past the ball well in front of his goal. In stoppage time, Jack Grealish hit the crossbar for City, Guardiola smiled on the sideline, and his striker Haaland had his mouth hanging open.

The scenes seemed so surreal, as if City were now facing the same fate as almost all of their opponents in recent years. When the score was 3-0, he “couldn’t see any danger,” said Guardiola, justifying his naive triple substitution in the 68th minute, which turned the match around. He took the regulars Gündogan, Phil Foden and Aké off the pitch in order to rest them for the Premier League away game at league leaders Liverpool on Sunday. In addition to Kevin De Bruyne, he brought in the talents Jahmai Simpson-Pusey, 19, and James McAtee, 22. This meant that their own stability was lost and the players from then on acted nervously and insecurely.

For the first time in their own history, City have now conceded at least two goals in six games in a row. City slipped in the premier class table and now actually has to worry about the playoffs for the round of 16. Because the next games will be away against Juventus Turin and Paris Saint-Germain. The situation was “inexplicable,” said Gündogan. Guardiola also admitted that the team is currently performing “fragile”. A mental thing? The trainer was perplexed because he didn’t know that. A week ago he extended his contract with City until 2027 – a fairly unique event in the football business after such a series of bankruptcies. Pep Guardiola absolutely wants to overcome the misery himself. But until then he will probably still have a few scratches.