Phil Foden says Manchester City perhaps endured the “worst” first-half he has ever seen against RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
Speaking to TNT Sports (28/11/2023) after the contest, Foden made his feelings clear about City’s performance at the Etihad Stadium.
After trailing by two goals in the first-half, goals from Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and an 87th-minute winner from Julian Alvarez resulted in a heroic second-half comeback from the hosts as they won 3-2 on Tuesday night.
Phil Foden says Manchester City had the “worst” first-half he has ever seen against RB Leipzig
While Lois Openda deserves all the praise in the world for his brilliant brace, the fact of the matter is that Manchester City’s defending for both goals was calamitous.
Both Manuel Akanji and Ruben Dias were turned far too easily by the Belgian striker, who was clinical in front of goal.
But after Manchester City turned things around in style against RB Leipzig, Phil Foden reflected on how appalling his side were during the first-half.
“Yeah, it was a half of two sides for us, I think. In the first half, it’s the worst I’ve seen us, I think”, Foden told TNT Sports.
However, Foden went on to focus on the positives, saying, “But the courage that we have and the motivation we have, we got it together at half-time and we came out, and we played a lot better and we changed the game.”
“It’s important when things are not going right to change them and this team’s got [a] great mentality for that and yeah, so nice to see.”
It was certainly up there
Phil Foden is correct as Manchester City were abysmal in every single department against RB Leipzig in the first-half.
Defensively, two lapses of concentration led to City shipping two goals but even in transition, they struggled to keep Marco Rose’s side at bay.
In possession, Pep Guardiola’s side were having a tough time retaining the ball up against RB Leipzig’s tireless press, leading to sloppy and overhit passes constantly.
As a result, even going forward, Manchester City were not creating many chances.
At least during the Pep Guardiola era, the display in the first-half may be as poor, if not even worse than their infamously disastrous showing against Southampton in the Carabao Cup in January.
