In his post-match interview, Pep Guardiola rejects Gundogan’s analysis, and insists his team played really well but just didn’t get the rub of the green. He may well think that. They certainly dominated for long periods in terms of possession, but Juventus defended them very well and they very rarely threatened to actually score. Anyway, on to the next game, namely Manchester United at home on Sunday.
And that’s all from me. Good night/morning/whatever-it-is-where-you are everyone. Here’s a bonus match report for you.
Jamie Jackson has filed his match report:
Missing in action during the past six weeks: Manchester City’s pizzazz. It was absent here again, in the latest moping performance that has become the odd, yet recognisable face of Pep Guardiola’s formerly supreme team.
There is now a surreal element about City’s plunge. Sides go on losing runs – sure they do – but for this champion group to lose for a seventh time in 10 games and extend their disturbing run to a meagre single victory in that time is baffling.
Much more here:
Ilkay Gundogan has a chat. He’s a very eloquent chap. I got down as much as I could, and this was the gist of it:
It’s very disappointing. I feel like we had chances to score a few goals but at the moment it just feels every attack we concede is just so dangerous. Sometimes we’re a bit careless in the duels and we overcomplicate things, and give them counterattacks and have to chase 50, 60m back. That’s not what we’re built for, you know. We’re built for possession. At the moment it’s just not working out for us.
Confidence is a big part of it, and that’s a mental issue as well. One action, we lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately, and they are able to break our rhythm with the smallest of things, they don’t have to do much and it has such a big effect on us. We have to do the simple things. It’s working hard, this is how you get the confidence back. By doing the small and simple things. It feels like crucial moments we are always doing the wrong things.
I feel like we know exactly what’s going wrong. We know the reasons. And still if you look at the most part of the games, we actually don’t play bad. We play quite good football. We just miss to score and in these kinds of games, if you give away one chance and they score, it’s not that easy to bounce back. It’s just trying to find the switch to turn things around.
Even though we’re not getting the results it doesn’t feel we’re far off it. That’s my personal feeling. As long as we don’t find that click it’s going to be tough. Every single player has to question himself, how to do better, how the player can sacrifice more to contribute to the team.
"It felt like every attack we conceded was dangerous"
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) December 11, 2024
Ilkay Gundogan reflects on Man City's 2-0 defeat to Juventus...
📺 @tntsports & @discoveryplusUK pic.twitter.com/1WV7CJ4027
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City are 22nd in the bonkers Champions League table. They need to finish above 25th if they are to stand a chance of progressing. Next they play the team currently 25th, Paris St Germain.
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A “clear victory” for Juventus, a “big step forward” for Motta, and a “perfect game” overall, according to Carlo Laudisa of the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Vlahovic scuote la Juve, McKennie la esalta. Netta vittoria sul Manchester City e Motta fa un salto importante in Champions. Gara perfetta. #UCL
— Carlo Laudisa (@carlolaudisa) December 11, 2024
That’s one win and seven – seven – defeats in 10 games now for City. It is the rankest form.
Juventus (1.14) 2-0 (1.17) Man City
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) December 11, 2024
Final score: Juventus 2-0 Manchester City
90+3 mins: It’s all over, and Manchester City lose again!
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90+1 mins: There’ll be a couple of minutes of stoppage time. Lewis’s shot was deflected into Gatti’s thigh. His arm was nearby, and a bit away from his body, but I’m not sure the ball actually hit it.
90 mins: Lewis has a shot, which is deflected into the keeper’s arms. City think it was a handball, and VAR will have a look. “Memories of games like this will be so annoying if Manchester City win the Champions League anyway,” writes Kári Tulinius. “That said, they are so so so bad right now, that I wouldn’t expect them to win a raffle even if they bought all the tickets.”
89 mins: City have had a lot of possession in the final third, but they’ve converted it into one shot on target in the second half.
87 mins: City bring Matheus Nunes on for Grealish.
86 mins: Bernardo Silva is booked now. Di Gregorio takes his time picking up the ball, so the Portuguese runs up and pushes Federico Gatti into him, which appears not to be allowed.
85 mins: Another pair of Juventus substitutions: Yildiz and Vlahovic go off, and Douglas Luiz and Samuel Mbangula come on.
84 mins: Grealish earns the game’s first booking, for tripping Locatelli. He’s not had a great game.
81 mins: Savinho came on for Doku a couple of minutes ago. City will hope their substitution pays off as quickly and emphatically as Juventus’s did.
79 mins: Weah’s first attempt was obviously a low cross and not a shot. Anyway, that goal couldn’t have been more against the run of play, but Juventus’s plan is to sit back in numbers and break at pace, and you can hardly blame them for executing it, now can you?
76 mins: It starts with Danilo taking the ball off the toes of Doku on the Juventus left. He passes infield to McKennie, who releases Weah into the right side of the area with an excellent pass. Weah tries a low cross and hits a defender but the ball deflects back to him, and at the second attempt he picks out McKennie’s run into the area, and the American scissor-kicks into the corner! Everything about that move, except the one thing that wasn’t which I’m going to ignore because the thing overall was so good and doesn’t deserve to be dragged down by one poorly-conceived pull-back, was perfect.
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GOAL! Juventus 2-0 Manchester City (McKennie, 75 mins)
Juventus break, and double their lead!
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72 mins: Doku is hanging out on the right a bit now, as City try to change things up. De Bruyne has another shot, and this one goes over the bar.
69 mins: Conceicao goes off, and Timothy Weah comes on. In other news, Weston McKennie replaces Thuram.
68 mins: Gundogan is teed up on the edge of the area, but Di Gregorio predicts where he’s going to shoot and is most of the way there before he does. He still needs to put in a good dive to turn the ball round the post, mind.
66 mins: De Bruyne takes a shot from the edge of the D, which flies wide.
65 mins: Juventus are defending excellently, and they’re really having to. De Bruyne seems to be playing in second gear, but also to be repeatedly picking them apart.
63 mins: City are regularly threatening at the moment. De Bruyne finds Doku on the left but Haaland is the only player attacking the six-yard box and he runs to the near post and the ball goes, low and hard, to the far.
59 mins: Grealish almost has a shooting chance 20 yards out but there are too many bodies in front of him so he shifts it right to Bernardo Silva, who has fewer defenders to avoid but hits one of them anyway.
57 mins: Doku runs in from the left to create a shooting chance, but it’s excellently blocked, and when it rebounds to Lewis his effort is excellently booked too.
55 mins: Federico Gatti leads the break and once he passes the ball to his right he keeps going into the penalty area. When the ball eventually comes in he meets it with a decent shot, but it’s too close to Ederson who pushes it away. It’s half-cleared, crossed back in and this time Vlaovic wins the header. This too is too close to Ederson but he pushes to the side, and it spins to the left and just over the line by the barest smidgeon before Ederson claws it away.
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GOAL! Juventus 1-0 Manchester City (Vlaovic, 53 mins)
Well they have now! Vlaovic hits Ederson with his header, but the referee’s wrist-based goal alert device pings!
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52 mins: Juventus have had the ball for the best part of two minutes without at any stage threatening to leave their half with it.
50 mins: De Bruyne is found in space on the right, and he picks out a lovely pass infield to Gundogan, who gets a bit excited about being inside the penalty area with the ball at his feet and shoots it into the nearest defender.
47 mins: Conceicao win a corner, which is headed out to Yildiz, whose shot is so badly miscued it picks out Koopmeiners, the corner-taker, out on the right flank, who is offside.
46 mins: Peeeeep! The home side get the ball re-rolling.
Here they come now. No signs of any halftimely changes. More action imminent.
The players are getting ready to come back out. Well, the Juventus players are. No sign of City.
Half time: Juventus 0-0 Manchester City
45+1 mins: And that is half of the time. The game has built slowly towards becoming potentially exciting, a journey I very much hope it finishes in the second half. Both teams have, it says here, had one shot on target, and of those I have no memory of Juventus’s. Onwards and upwards!
45+1 mins: Into stoppage time. Conceicao has a great opportunity to play in Koopmeiners but his pass is underhit and forces the Dutchman to check back.
42 mins: Conceicao trips Doku and the pair exchange a few words after the foul is given, forcing Turpin to have a chat with them, which appears to completely fail to calm them down.
40 mins: What a save that is! De Bruyne plays a fabulous pass into the path of Haaland’s run beyond the home defence and Di Gregorio is completely exposed. He comes off his line and Haaland tries to chip it over him, but Di Gregorio, with all but no time to react, pushes out his left hand!
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36 mins: City’s build-up play is so slow, but eventually De Bruyne swings it into the area. A defender heads it into another defender and it falls to Haaland, whose shot hits a defender and deflects back into his face. It’s been that kind of game so far.
35 mins: Turpin is still rubbish his back, as play continues around him.
34 mins: Koopmeiners tries to run onto the ball but runs straight into the referee instead, apparently hurting his back. Clement Turpin rubs it a bit and then plays on. He could have gone full Alcock there.
31 mins: Yildiz is picked out on the left, and his first touch brings it down fabulously, and though he easily outpaces Walker he the runs infield and into a huddle of defenders. His shot is deflected wide and the offside flag then goes up, but I don’t think he would have been offside had he scored and forced a VAR check.
28 mins: Every time Doku gets the ball two black and white shirts pounce. He hasn’t often had the time or the space to actually achieve anything, but at the same time he’s looked the most likely to do so.
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24 mins: Doku plays a lovely pass to De Bruyne, inside the penalty area to the left of goal, but his infield pass is cleared.
22 mins: Juventus are coming up with moments of enterprising play, but they’ve so far been a bit blunt when they come to needing a cutting edge. Conceicao dances down the right at the end of a nice move, but there’s a queue of defenders on the end of his pull-back.
19 mins: Locatelli’s cross is headed out of the area to Kenan Yildiz, who has a vicious, dipping, swerving shot from 25 yards that flies just wide of the far post.
17 mins: More than a third of the way through the half, a sixth of the way through the game. Still awaiting a shot. City have at least just won the game’s second corner.
15 mins: City try to pass their way out of defence but don’t look very comfortable about it, and are a bit lucky to end up with a throw-in.
13 mins: City work the ball forward as far as Grealish, about five yards outside the Juventus penalty area, but his first touch is hopeless and that’s the end of that.
9 mins: Conceicao takes the ball off Lewis, but then is more focused on falling over and trying to win a free kick than on taking advantage. I say that, but he has actually stayed down and looking pained, so maybe I’m being unfair. Anyway, Juve have a corner.
6 mins: Juventus have the ball for the first time, work it out of defence really well – thanks in large part to a lovely crossfield pass from Francisco Conceicao – but when Vlahovic is played through he’s offside. Obviously we have to wait for him to dribble into the area and have a shot deflected out for a corner before it’s given, but offside he is.
3 mins: City have had the ball for almost all the game thus far, and they eventually work it to De Bruyne on the right. Di Gregorio catches his cross.
1 min: City have kicked off, and immediately gone route one, Ederson pumping a long ball downfield and winning a throw-in as a result.
Pennants are exchanged and the coin tossed. Kyle Walker win the toss. “Friends, Mancunians, Countrymen, lend me your ears ... I come not to bury Walker, but to praise him! Frankly, if Citeh are having problems very little of it will be due to deficiency on the part of Mr Fast’n’Reliable. Yes, he may be getting burned a bit more than in the past, but maybe this is also down to weaknesses elsewhere in the Guardiola meta-verse system? Any team would be happy to have a team member who ALWAYS gives the full 100% on the pitch and never slags off the management or teammates during the hard times. Ave, Kyle!”
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The players come out, and around the ground fans wave pleasingly colour-coded flags.
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I mean, this would do, wouldn’t it?
The big pre-match news is that Matheus Nunes has tiny shin pads with his own face on them.
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A little more pre-match reading from you, this time from the pen/keyboard of Ben McAleer for WhoScored. Is this the end of the road for Kyle Walker?
The hardest thing a professional footballer can do is admit when their race is run. Gary Neville did so in the toilets at the Hawthorns on New Year’s Day in 2011. He retired a month later. His infamous 71-minute display has become the benchmark for poor performances from over-the-hill players. “He’s had his Neville-at-West-Brom moment,” fans would quip. Kyle Walker has had many of these in recent months, but seemingly not one to convince the defender his career is drawing to a close.
Walker is one of the most decorated right-backs in English football history. The Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League – the 34-year-old has won them all since leaving Tottenham for Manchester City in 2017. Now, there is a real chance he won’t add to his trophy haul.
Much more here:
Here’s a bit of Jamie Jackson on Pep Guardiola’s declaration that this stint at Manchester City will be his last job in club management. I’m not sure I believe it, but he didn’t seem to be equivocating:
At some point I will feel like it’s enough and at that moment I will stop for sure. I’m going to stop. I am not going to join another team, I’m not going to leave to go to another country [for a club]. I won’t have the energy. Now I’m still here, but to think about starting again, the whole process of training – no, no.
Here’s Jamie’s story:
The teams!
The team sheets have been handed in, and we therefore know that tonight’s teams look like this:
Juventus: Di Gregorio, Danilo, Gatti, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Savona, Locatelli, Thuram, Francisco Conceicao, Koopmeiners, Yildiz, Vlahovic. Subs: Perin, Pinsoglio, McKennie, Adzic, Fagioli, Weah, Douglas Luiz, Rouhi, Mbangula.
Man City: Ederson, Walker, Dias, Gvardiol, Lewis, Silva, Gundogan, Grealish, De Bruyne, Doku, Haaland. Subs: Ortega, Kovacic, Savio, Matheus Luiz, Foden, Wright, Simpson-Pusey, O’Reilly, McAtee, Wilson-Esbrand, Hudson.
Referee: Clement Turpin (France).
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Hello world!
Will this be any good? I’m very much an optimist, but given the form of these two sides it’s hard to tell. Juventus have drawn their last four matches, five of the last six, and seven of the last nine. In that time they’ve tied 0-0 (twice), 1-1 (twice), 2-2 (twice) and fought back from 4-2 down to draw 4-4 (once). They are absolute wizards of the stalemate. So while it’s true to say that they haven’t lost in nine, they’ve also only won two of those. In the plus column, Douglas Luiz and Weston McKennie could both be back from injury tonight.
The less said about Manchester City’s last nine games the better, but for the record they’ve lost nine and drawn two (including, in their last Champions League game, the 3-3 Juventus need to complete the set). And for this game they’re without John Stones, Nathan Ake, Mateo Kovacic and Oscar Bobb, plus Nathan Ake and Manuel Akanji.
This is (some of) what Thiago Motta, the Juventus coach, had to say about this fixture:
I don’t think there is a best time to play Manchester City, but we will face the match as we always do, by trying to stop them from playing their football and impose our own play on them. We have prepared to give it our all in the game, carefully studying what we must do and what we must not do against such a huge opponent. I cannot pass judgement on their current situation, but this is a team that has proven their immense value over the years. I have enormous respect for them and for their coach Pep Guardiola, for whom facts simply speak for themselves, as he has managed to win everything and consistently. We know that Manchester City want to attack and keep the ball. We will have to defend well and show great quality when we have possession.
So, Juve, let’s see how much careful studying you’ve done, then.
