Juventus 2-0 Man City (Vlahovic 53′, McKennie 75′)
TURIN — Pep Guardiola hoped it would be enough for Manchester City to “play simple” against Juventus.
But on a torrid trip to Turin, it was his opponents who showed how a well-executed game plan can pull a team out of crisis.
The serial title-winning Spaniard’s idea was that if his players could be “patient with the ball” and run “like a desperate team” without it, the performances – and results – would surely turn.
It didn’t work. Instead, Guardiola was left fielding familiar questions about individual errors and mentality in his post-match press conference after a 2-0 defeat where familiar flaws were exposed in his side’s seventh defeat in 10 games.
“I don’t think it was defensive mistakes,” Guardiola said. “We missed the last pass… lacked the composure to shoot or make an assist. That was the difference.”
City ended the night with 68 per cent possession, but the 650 passes they put together earned a net result of two shots on target.
Both were saved superbly by Michele Di Gregorio, the first on Erling Haaland’s dinked finish at the end of the first half and the second to claw away an Ilkay Gundogan curler after the break.
Despite Guardiola’s comments, there were individual errors in defence. Josko Gvardiol passed the ball straight to a Juventus player for Dusan Vlahovic’s opener before Weston McKennie was left completely unmarked to hammer in the second.
Juve show City a way forward
Juventus, meanwhile, emerged from their own crisis with a performance built on work rate, organisation and composure.
The Bianconeri came into the game with an identically underwhelming points total in both Europe and their domestic league and were under pressure to find ways to win after drawing seven of their last nine games.
As well as Di Gregorio’s crucial interventions, centre-backs Federico Gatti and Pierre Kalulu combined to keep Haaland quiet in a defensive performance where Juve blocked, tackled and sprinted their way to only a second win in seven games.
If City can take anything from their latest slip-up, it could be to take a leaf out of Juve’s book in their search for answers.
Juventus were also missing key players, particularly in defence where star centre-back Gleison Bremer has been ruled out for the season along with left-back Juan Cabal, while Andrea Cambiaso – arguably Juve’s player of the season so far – was also out.
Despite that, Juve showed the strength of the collective in shutting down the spaces to stifle City, leaving them so frustrated that Bernardo Silva even ended up starting an altercation with two of the biggest men on the pitch, Di Gregorio and Gatti, with just minutes to go.
‘Obviously a mental issue with City’
An alarming statistic filtered through at full-time that City have now conceded more goals in all competitions than any other team in Europe’s top-five leagues since the start of November, shipping 21 in nine games.
Guardiola could do worse than take inspiration from what Juventus did against them with a threadbare defence, then.
Gundogan, fronting up to the TV cameras after the game, said he believes there is “obviously a mental issue as well.”
“You can see that,” the German added. “Sometimes, one action we miss the ball, lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately, lose the rhythm, they are able to break our rhythm with the easiest of things. They don’t even need to do much.”
Guardiola responded by saying he doesn’t agree with Gundogan that the players lack confidence, but it was hard not to come to that conclusion as they toiled against a Juventus side in an almost identical state of crisis.
Now, it’s City’s chances of automatically qualifying for the last 16 that look desperate – not the pressing Guardiola hoped for.
Two defeats and a draw in the last three European games put the Premier League champions in 22nd place in the league phase table, five points outside the top eight and just one above the elimination spots with games against Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge to come.
“We have two games, we need one point maybe,” Guardiola said.
“You go to Turin, Paris, our three games away were really tough. You have to accept it.
“We will turn around, not forget that period, appreciate more what we have done in the past, what we are going to do in the future.”
What the more immediate future holds is a Manchester derby on Sunday, and a chance to end this rut in the best way possible. Following Juve’s example might not be the worst way to go about it.
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