Unhappy Return For Pep
It was an unhappy return to the Camp Nou for Pep Guardiola as Manchester City went down to a comprehensive 4-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. It was the magician Messi who opened the scoring after 17 minutes. City's new goalkeeper Claudio Bravo did not last the whole game as he was sent of in the 53rd minute for a hand ball incident outside the box. Messi added another to make it 2-0 in the 61st minute and went on to score a third in the 69th before Neymar finished the game off in the 89th minute.
City had themselves to blame as they squandered some great opportunities to get on the score sheet including a free header from John Stones which went sailing over the bar.
City were disappointing in my opinion. I was expecting a fascinating contest between these two footballing giants but Man City never really turned up.
We all know that FC Barcelona is one of the best clubs in the world and also have the luxury of producing world class players such as Messi, Neymar and Suarez, but I get the feeling that City gave them too much time and space on the ball to weave their magical footballing skills.
I also think the decision to swap Joe Hart for Claudio Bravo has proved to be a huge mistake for Guardiola because Bravo is the sort of keeper who likes to use his feet rather than his hands. it will be interesting to see what England's no:1 does after his season-loan spell at Torino.
Have City made the right choice by giving the managerial job to Guardiola?
Can he deal with the pressure of the champions league?
All will be revealed in the next 8 months
No comments:
Post a Comment