Guardiola on resting Man City stars in the Champions League | OneFootball

Manchester City, with a controversial decision by Pep Guardiola, suffered their first Champions League defeat of the season at home on Tuesday (25th), against Bayer Leverkusen, who surprised the English team with a 2-0 victory.

See also: All the news from Gazeta Esportiva Check out Gazeta Esportiva's YouTube channel Follow Gazeta Esportiva on Instagram

With this setback, the ‘Citizens’ remain with 10 points on the table, before traveling to face Real Madrid in two weeks, while Leverkusen (8 points) will host Newcastle at the beginning of December.

“It was not the performance we had imagined. Maybe I should take full responsibility, but I still think the players who started the match were exceptional,” analyzed Guardiola, about resting some key players.

Guardiola decided to rotate the squad, leaving almost all the starters on the bench, including Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, and goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.

“Maybe it was a bit too much, but when we were playing every two, three, or four days…,” lamented the coach.

How the game went

City fell behind in the first half with a goal from Alejandro Grimaldo (23′) and Leverkusen extended their lead shortly after the break through Patrik Schick (54′).

Haaland and Rayan Cherki played the last 30 minutes of the match, while Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, and Nico O’Reilly came on at the start of the second half. Five changes made by Guardiola, but to no avail for Manchester City.

For the first time in 24 games, since 2018, City was defeated at home in the Champions League before the knockout stage.

It was the second consecutive defeat for the ‘Citizens’, after losing 2-1 to Newcastle on Saturday, in the Premier League.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.