{"id":5115,"date":"2025-02-12T02:05:40","date_gmt":"2025-02-11T23:05:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/?p=5115"},"modified":"2025-02-12T02:42:15","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T23:42:15","slug":"manchester-city-once-again-the-masters-of-their-own-downfall-in-ucl-round-of-16-qualifiers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/manchester-city-once-again-the-masters-of-their-own-downfall-in-ucl-round-of-16-qualifiers\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester City Once Again the Masters of their Own Downfall in UCL Round of 16 Qualifiers"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s no news that Manchester City have been on a downward spiral for the better part of the last few months. Man City are once again the masters of their own downfall in the UEFA Champions League<\/a> Round of 16 Qualifiers.<\/p>\n

As one commentator put it, “The mistakes are unbelievable!”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Playing against behemoth Real Madrid at home in Etihad, Man City started the game strongly, with “goal machine” Erling Haaland opening the scoring in the 19th minute.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9’s Unstylish Goal: Tough Yet Effective<\/h2>\n

Come the second half, the tide shifted, with Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> opening the scoring for the Spanish giants in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9’s goal was nothing for the books; but a sidekick that fell short in style (and bounced off the side of his foot) but was very effective, spiraling into the goalposts.<\/p>\n

\"Mbappe
Mbapp\u00e9 celebrating his goal against Man City. Mbapp\u00e9’s goal was so weak he’d need to scrape the entire internet to delete it from the historical record. Source: Getty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A Ceballos Foul Aids City’s Home Turf UCL Aspirations<\/h2>\n

City froze for a minute, but then got lucky after a Dani Ceballos foul on Phil Foden handed them a penalty kick. The goal machine quickly converted, sending Real keeper Thibaut Courtois counting blades of grass on the opposite side.<\/p>\n

City were back in the lead, looking strong and with the ‘Cityzens’ beating their chests like they were angry with their chest cavities.<\/p>\n

Real Madrid Textbook Comeback Against Manchester City in the UCL 24\u201325 Playoffs<\/h2>\n

Before long, however, former Man City player Brahim Diaz put in Real’s second, just 4 minutes before the end of stoppage time.<\/p>\n

If you’re like me, at this point, you may have been praying that the game ends 2-2, hoping that in the second leg, a draw would also be the result and a penalty shootout on the way. Not with Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid.<\/p>\n

The Mistakes Costing Man City an Arm and a Leg<\/h3>\n

In 90 +2′, Kovacic made a crucial mistake, back passing the ball via a side-heel. Vin\u00edcius Jr. was there to receive it and despite being in on that action, Real Madrid’s star player Jude Bellingham rushed to the fore, with Vini Jr. kicking him what was essentially a tap-in.<\/p>\n

\"Jude
Jude Bellingham celebrating his winning goal against Manchester City. City’s mistakes essentially handed Real the win, an important one as the two teams square it off a week from now in Madrid. Source: Getty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jude took it and with it ended the game 3-2 in favor of UCL defending champions Real Madrid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Is Man City’s Manager Pep Guardiola Losing His Touch?<\/h2>\n

Man City’s mistake yesterday was just the latest in a long line of slumps that has seen the treble-winning English behemoth fall to its knees. As one commentator put it, “The mistakes are unbelievable!”<\/p>\n

For a team like #ManCity<\/a> to fall short of style so greatly, one must wonder what’s really going on at Etihad. Is Pep Guardiola losing his touch? Did the financial scandal rock the team’s soul, or what in the Britain is going on?<\/p>\n

City must pull up their socks. Pep must find a way to bring back the oomph to the team. He must do a shake-up or whatever it takes because it would be such a shame to win a treble one year, have Rodri win the Ballon d’Or the next, and then lose out on all of the above just two years later.<\/p>\n

\"Real
Carlo Ancelotti was right not to underestimate Man City despite City’s floundering performance these past few months. Even so, Pep should up his game. He’s good, but nothing lasts forever. Source: Getty.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Personally, I am a Manchester United fan and of course I was rooting for Real Madrid but, once the game ended, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. City are embarrassing English football with such novice mistakes on the pitch, and it is unacceptable.<\/p>\n

As EPL<\/a> fans, we all deserve better. We can’t have the rest of Europe thinking we are losing our finesse. I think the EU should come out and condemn the lack of quality shown tonight, else Trump<\/a> will ‘tariff’ TV rights, and we’ll all have to download TikTok<\/a> to keep watching games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s no news that Manchester City have been on a downward spiral for the better part of the last few months. Man City are once again the masters of their own downfall in the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 Qualifiers. As one commentator put it, “The mistakes are unbelievable!” Playing against behemoth Real Madrid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5117,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"googlesitekit_rrm_CAoww8LBDA:productID":"","_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"uix_meta_title":"","uix_meta_description":"","uix_canonical_url":"","_convertkit_action_broadcast_export":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_bookmark_settings":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_paywall_metabox":[],"jnews_review":[],"enable_review":"","type":"","name":"","summary":"","brand":"","sku":"","good":[],"bad":[],"score_override":"","override_value":"","rating":[],"price":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"jnews_post_split":[],"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[57,10],"tags":[],"post_series":[],"class_list":["post-5115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mania-football","category-mania-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5115"},{"taxonomy":"post_series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniainc.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_series?post=5115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}