Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain continue their personal ‘fall into hell’. Both teams, led by two former FC Barcelona coaches, were unable to pick up the three points in the fifth round of the Champions League and sank even further in the standings, confirming the sporting crisis that both institutions are going through.
The Manchester team is experiencing a real drama. In their duel against Feyenoord at the Etihad Stadium, the ‘skyblues’ were aiming to take the victory comfortably after going 3-0 ahead shortly after the start of the second half. However, with 15 minutes to go, the Dutch took advantage of a couple of mistakes by their rival and sealed the comeback that consummates the worst moment of the ‘Guardiola was‘.
And the ‘citizens’ have now accumulated six consecutive games without knowing victory. Until Tuesday, the English had five consecutive defeats against Tottenham on two occasions (2-1 and 4-0), Bournemouth (2-1), Sporting CP (4-1) and Brighton (2-1). “Something is happening and we are in trouble,” declared Pep at the end of the match against Feyenoordwhich has added fuel to the fire in Manchester.
PSG cannot raise its head in the Champions League
For their part, the Parisians have shown themselves to be a completely anti-competitive team at European level. While in France they lead the Ligue 1 table with some ease (32 points, 6 behind their closest pursuer, Monaco), in the Champions League they have only managed one victory in five games, and their last defeat against Bayern Munich (1-0) forces them to win the next three games to ensure a place in the next round.
Despite the fact that the match against the Bavarians was one in which, on paper, they could have ‘failed’, the reality of PSG in the Champions League urged them to get the three points. However, a terrible mistake by the Russian goalkeeper Safonov allowed Kim Min-Jae to score the only goal of the match, sending the Parisians to 26th place in the standings and complicating their place in the tournament too much.
Thus, the next few days seem crucial for both institutions and, above all, their coaches, who will have to make an emergency ‘turn’ in the present of their players to straighten their course and avoid putting their continuity in two hotter than ever benches at even greater risk.
