by It was a miserable milestone for Pep Guardiola, a terrible way to reach a century. His 100th Champions League game as Manchester City manager was considered one of the worst. And as poor as his players were, he recognized who was most to blame. Yourself.
City were beaten by management complacency and their own poor performance, as well as a fairly impressive Bayer Leverkusen side. When the third teams in the Premier League and the Bundesliga met, Guardiola chose his second team. They came in second best. It was a gamble that backfired. The regulars were rested as City’s next opponents are relegation-threatened Leeds. The decision to make ten changes seems unnecessarily strange. “Too many changes,” admitted Guardiola. “It was the first time in my life I did it and it was too much. I take full responsibility.”
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Guardiola punished after making sweeping changes (AP)
The fallout from a surprise setback could now mean a place in the knockout play-offs that City had hoped to avoid. “I don’t assume what will happen in the future,” Guardiola said. He probably didn’t expect that. After seven years without defeat in 23 Champions League group games, Leverkusen emerged as the successor to Lyon, the previous conquerors of the Etihad.
City are now on a run of two defeats in a row, fresh from defeat at Newcastle. There could be back-to-back defeats in the Champions League as the next game is away against Real Madrid. Suddenly this phase looks less like a procession to her. For Leverkusen, who struck confidently through Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrick Schick, it was further evidence of the transformative influence coach Kasper Hjulmand had after Erik ten Hag’s short reign was cut short with embarrassing speed. “This is an unforgettable evening,” said Hjulmand. “You can’t expect three points here at City.”
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There was also no City team list. If the intention was to prove that this wasn’t a one-man team, that gave exactly the wrong impression. “I always like to be nice and include everyone,” Guardiola said. A starting XI that cost £350 million produced a flat display. “Still, I think the players who started were exceptional players,” Guardiola added. But his students were underwhelming. Nobody took advantage of the opportunity. Guardiola, a three-time Bundesliga winner, appeared guilty of underestimating the youngest German champions.
Only Nico Gonzalez kept his place, and even he wouldn’t be the first choice if Rodri was fit. There was no Gianluigi Donnarumma, no Erling Haaland. At least not at first. “We had weapons on the bench,” Guardiola said. At half-time he had to call on Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku and Nico O’Reilly to replace the ineffectual trio of Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and Rayan Ait-Nouri. After another 20 minutes, Haaland and Rayan Cherki were substituted on. Omar Marmoush, who was successful for Eintracht Frankfurt against German clubs, made little impression against Leverkusen and made way for Haaland.
Enter the Big Man, a rare night off restricted by the state of emergency. “We can’t play 95 minutes against Erling every time,” said Guardiola. After 25 minutes, Haaland’s scoring streak in every Champions League game this season ended. Mark Flekken made a good save as the Norwegian was released by Foden, just as goalkeeper Cherki saved twice. The substitutes at least made a difference. The starters had left them too much to do.
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Flekken played excellently and was still a spectator for most of the first half. He made a good save from Nathan Ake from close range. Apart from that, Guardiola’s reserves were not worth mentioning in the first 43 minutes. Then Tijjani Reijnders stormed forward and Flekken made a save, a Dutchman again parried another goal. Otherwise, this feeling of nothingness before the break had caused Guardiola to turn to his bench. That and the fact that Leverkusen was already leading.
Alex Grimaldo scored in the opening game for Leverkusen (AP)
Patrick Schick scored the second goal in front of the Leverkusen fans (PA)
With Christian Kofane’s serve, Grimaldo fired a shot past Champions League debutant James Trafford. It was the Spaniard’s eighth left-back goal of the season, a remarkable achievement from one of Xabi Alonso’s best signings. Most of the talismans from the 2024 team that won Leverkusen’s first Bundesliga title are gone. Not Grimaldo. As captain of the team in the absence of the suspended Robert Andrich, he was also involved in the second goal. Schick pushed through in front of Ake and fended off Ibrahim Maza’s cross with a glancing header. It was also his eighth goal of the season.
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And if Leverkusen proved this week in Manchester that it is possible for a team playing in a 3-4-3 to win, the injury-plagued team also defended extremely well. It was remarkable how few alarms they had and how much control they exercised. Their Champions League campaign began with them going three games without a win and culminated in a 7-2 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain.
Although City promised to be the other toughest opponent they faced, this was a spectacular result for a completely different reason. The city is not used to nights like this. Neither does Guardiola. But while his team did something wrong, so did he.
