In Pep Guardiola and Ruben Amorim’s much-awaited tactical battle, the Sporting CP boss came out on top as his side demolished Manchester City 4-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Phil Foden opened the scoring for Manchester City just four minutes into the contest.
However, Viktor Gyokeres punished Pep Guardiola’s men on the break and equalised in the 38th minute by lobbing the onrushing Ederson.
While City were dominant despite the 1-1 scoreline at half-time, Ruben Amorim’s side scored two goals within four minutes of the second half — courtesy of the first goal from Maximiliano Araujo and a penalty from Gyokeres.
Erling Haaland had the chance to get Manchester City back into a game from a spot-kick, which he blasted onto the crossbar.
Gyokeres went on to score his second penalty of the night as City were well and truly humbled in Lisbon.
Pep Guardiola praised Gyokeres ahead of the clash as an “important player” for Sporting.
Almost two weeks ago, it was claimed Hugo Viana has identified Gyokeres as Haaland’s successor at Manchester City if the Norwegian decided to join Real Madrid one day. The Swedish striker was at the centrepiece of the Portuguese giants’ annihilation of the Premier League winners.
As per ESPN UK, Manchester City have now lost three consecutive games for the first time in a season since April 2018 after Sporting humbled them at the Jose Alvalade Stadium.
The Sky Blues have been defeated by Tottenham Hotspur in the Carabao Cup, AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League and now Sporting in the Champions League — scoring three and conceding eight goals in these outings.
Considering the credit in the bank that Manchester City have due to their unprecedented success over the years, perhaps their back-to-back losses against Spurs and the Cherries were not widely viewed as a crisis.
But with how Sporting picked them apart, worries might be emerging at the Etihad Stadium about the state of their ongoing season.
Man City have not solved “frustrating” pre-match Bernardo Silva admission
Ahead of their trip to Portugal, Bernardo Silva labelled Manchester City’s defeat to Bournemouth as “frustrating.”
“Bournemouth is much more frustrating for me personally because that is our main competition right now, they were better than us, that is what is frustrating.”
“They were better in all departments. We have to deal with that.”
Unfortunately for Bernardo, his teammates did not solve the issues he raised before their clash against Sporting.
Manchester City were outdone by the hosts both offensively and defensively in the rare rout they suffered.
Ruben Amorim and Co have managed to expose City’s flaws as a side as their three successive losses could point to a worrying pattern emerging.