Manchester City were handed their third consecutive defeat of the season on Tuesday night.
Last Saturday saw Bournemouth end City’s unbeaten streak and secure their first-ever victory over the Blues with a 2-1 win in the Premier League.
Pep Guardiola’s side followed that up by blowing an early 1-0 lead and ultimately losing 4-1 to Sporting CP in the Champions League.
Phil Foden opened the scoring in the fourth minute, only for Viktor Gyokeres to fire in an equaliser just seven minutes from halftime.
Then just five minutes into the second period of the match, City were 3-1 down before eventually conceding another to bring an end to a dismal night for the club.
After the game, the City manager gave his verdict on the match and pinpointed one particular fault he saw from his players on this occasion.
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Pep Guardiola admits Man City were not emotionally stable against Sporting
When asked to give his initial thoughts on the match, Guardiola said this in response.
He said: “We made a fantastic first-half. Now we are struggling to score when they create and we concede what the opponents not do much. Bournemouth aside as they were much, much better.
“The first-half was really, really good. From my point of view, we scored a goal, and created a lot. But every pass, simple things, we miss sometimes.
“They can run, and they punished us a little bit. It can happen. After the third and the fourth, we have to avoid it.
“Emotionally we were not stable enough and this competition you have to be stable.
“2-1 is 2-1. Many minutes to happen, but we cannot give away the two actions for the third and fourth goal, we have to be emotionally more and more stable.”
City crumbled in the second half against Sporting
The first half saw the away side have 74% possession and 11 shots at goal, although the Portuguese club still had two big chances compared to City’s one.
Then in the second half, the Blues still dominated possession but saw Sporting have five big chances in total.
Having given away two penalties in the second period, this somewhat backs up Guardiola’s point about his players not being emotionally stable enough to deal with the threats Sporting gave them.
This defeat saw City lose three games on the bounce for the first time since 2018, which highlights how unusual this poor run of form is for the club.
The match also led to Bernardo Silva saying City are in a “dark place” right now in terms of their poor form.
With that taken on board, the Blues will have to focus their emotions on getting back on track and securing a much-needed victory in this weekend’s Premier League match against Brighton & Hove Albion.
