Manchester City have been humbled 4-1 by Sporting CP in the Champions League.
It is three defeats in a row now for Manchester City and Pep Guardiola has something of a mini-crisis on his hands.
The Spaniard’s side have not been at the races for weeks, and this kind of result has been coming, many feel.
City started well in Lisbon, taking an early lead through Phil Foden.
But the visitors were then punished for wasting several chances, with Sporting getting back on level terms through Viktor Gyokeres.
In the second-half, City completely fell apart defensively, conceding twice early on. After Max Araujo put Sporting 2-1 up, Gyokeres then scored a penalty after a clumsy challenge by Josko Gvardiol, who really struggled.
Matheus Nunes gave away a penalty himself late on, with Gyokeres completing his hat-trick.
Bernardo Silva reacts after awful Man City defeat to Sporting
This was a truly humbling defeat for City.
It is the first time since 2018 that the club have lost three games in a row, and it is clear to see that all is not well right now.
Fans were saying after the Sporting defeat that Rodri is being massively missed, but City are also being very wasteful at times.
Bernardo Silva wore the captain’s armband tonight, and the Portuguese fronted up straight after the game.
The Portuguese admitted on TNT Sports: “In the beginning of the second-half we just gave them too many opportunities.
“Disappointing, we’re a bit in a dark place right now and everything looks to be going way even when we play well we don’t score our chances. We concede too easily.
“So definitely we need to look inside and check what we’re not doing well, and start being better very quickly. Otherwise, it will be difficult to come back from these losses.”
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Man City are far too exposed
These last few results have shown that City are just far too exposed at the moment.
Sporting took full advantage of City’s high line, and the lack of protection for Manuel Akanji and full debutant Jahmai Simpson-Pusey was alarming.
City undoubtedly miss Rodri a lot. But Guardiola could surely relieve a bit of the pressure on his side by instructing the backline to drop a bit deeper.
He should also strongly consider deploying two holding midfielders during this tough time.
City must now try and bounce back at the weekend, but another tough game lies in wait in the Premier League against Brighton.
