Manchester City are in real trouble at the moment, and last night’s draw with Feyenoord was truly quite something.
Manchester City’s poor form continued, as they threw away a three-goal lead against the Dutch giants to draw 3-3 in their fifth League Phase match.
It’s left City 15th in the table and with much work to do to ensure they’re one of the eight teams who quality automatically for the knockout stages.
Erling Haaland scored two more goals for City, with Ilkay Gundogan also chipping in. But then, there was a total defensive capitulation in the final 15 minutes, leading to Guardiola to admit Man City are ‘not stable’ right now.
That is the main focus right now, but City not having other attacking players scoring goals is a real issue – and Julian Alvarez’s exploits last night will not make Pep Guardiola feel much better.
Former Man City striker Julian Alvarez scores UCL brace for Atletico Madrid
Elsewhere in the Champions League last night, Atletico Madrid made a real statement.
The Spanish giants thrashed Sparta Prague 6-0 away from home, which has seen Diego Simeone’s side move up to 13th in the table.
And former City man Alvarez made some big contributions.
He gave his side the lead on 15 minutes with a beautiful free-kick from the edge of the box, leaving goalkeeper Peter Vindahl Jensen rooted to the spot.
Atleti went 2-0 up through Marcos Llorente, before Alvarez struck again on 59 minutes. This time, he picked the ball up just inside his own half and then surged to the edge of the Sparta box, exchanging passes with Giuliano Simeone before finishing confidently at the near post.
Atleti then found further goals through Antoine Griezmann and Angel Correa (brace).
As per Sofascore, Alvarez completed 31/33 (94%) passes, won 5/9 duels and created one ‘big’ chance during his 79 minutes on the pitch.
He was named the official Player of the Match.
- Who is Julian Alvarez? The story of the striker who won it all at Man City before joining Atletico Madrid
Guardiola may wish he still had Alvarez
Guardiola probably hasn’t yet seen what happened elsewhere in the Champions League last night – no doubt he’s picking the bones out of City’s shocking capitulation against Feyenoord.
But the Manchester manager will surely be left feeling slightly uncomfortable if he sees what Alvarez did for Atleti.
Alvarez has been bubbling along nicely so far since his £81.5 million transfer, and has now scored nine goals in 20 appearances.
| Julian Alvares for Atletico Madrid this season |
| Appearances – 20 |
| Minutes played – 1184 |
| Goals – 9 |
| Assists – 1 |
Those nine goals are as many as Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, Jack Grealish, Bernardo Silva, Savinho and Jeremy Doku combined.
Last weekend, Jamie Redknapp claimed Alvarez is currently a huge miss for Manchester City, amid the lack of output from City’s attackers this season apart from Haaland.
Chris Sutton has also questioned the sale of Alvarez, who got 32 goals and assists last season across all competitions for City.
City couldn’t really be blamed for turning down the money that was offered. But certainly, Alvarez’s performances and numbers are making for uncomfortable viewing at this moment in time.
