Manchester City’s miserable run of form continued on Tuesday with a shocking 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord.
Pep Guardiola’s side were 3-0 up and cruising early in the second half as an Erling Haaland double was accompanied by a strike from Ilkay Gundogan, only for a spectacular late collapse to hand Feyenoord a share of the spoils.
How the game unfolded
City began brightly and Ilkay Gundogan saw the game’s first real chance deflected wide in the early stages. The hosts controlled the tempo, drawing plenty of scrappy fouls as Feyenoord battled to match the tempo.
Feyenoord stopper Timon Wellenreuther combined with his far post to keep an Haaland header out in the tenth minute, but the goalkeeper nearly became the villain when his poor pass found Bernardo Silva. Some penalty-box pinball ultimately spared his blushes.
Phil Foden’s fizzing strike from range needed turning round Wellenreuther’s post while, down the other end, Ederson was brought into action to deny Igor Paixao, who perhaps should have given the visitors an unlikely lead against the run of play.
With five minutes to go in the first half, David Hancko made an excellent block to deny Haaland, but the ensuing corner saw City awarded a penalty when Quentin Timber sent the Norwegian tumbling to the ground. Haaland stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards, smashing the ball into the back of the net twice in a display of both frustration and relief to see things actually go his way for the first time in a while.
City doubled their advantage shortly after the restart. Gundogan bagged his second goal of the competition with a low strike which took a wicked deflection off Hancko en route to the back of the net.
Just three minutes later, Haaland was celebrating once again. He slid in to convert a low cross from Matheus Nunes, seemingly ending the game as a competition.
However, the game was only just getting started.
With City beginning to relax, some sloppy defending opened the door for Feyenoord to snatch a goal of their own. Josko Gvardiol’s poor pass back to Ederson was pounced upon by Anis Hadj Moussa, who rounded the City goalkeeper and converted from a narrow angle.
Another display of lacklustre defending allowed Santiago Gimenez to tap home from close range with eight minutes to go and, as the clock ticked towards 90, Hancko headed home on a counter to pile even more misery on City, who are now without a win in six games.
Check out the player ratings for Man City vs Feyenoord here.
There was simply no need for City to concede one goal here, let alone three, and Pep Guardiola knew it. The sight of the City boss with his head in his hands on the bench after Anis Hadj Moussa slotted home spoke 1,000 words.
Whether it was complacency or a sheer inability to cope with pressure which wasn’t even there, City somehow managed to shoot themselves in the foot and hand Feyenoord three late goals, undoing all the positive work from the other end of the pitch.
Defend like that against Liverpool at the weekend and City could easily be kissing their dignity goodbye.
Guardiola has openly insisted that his side will be back to their best once their injured players have returned. If Rodri is that important to this team, then serious questions have to be asked.
It was £35m goalkeeper Ederson who flapped at the second and third after £77.6m centre-back Josko Gvardiol had played his side into trouble for the first goal. They are both near-permanent fixtures in City’s starting lineup, not stand-ins covering for their expensive teammates.
There’s a mentality problem at the Etihad these days, and Guardiola needs to fix it urgently.
On a more positive note, Erling Haaland looked good in front of goal.
In recent weeks, Haaland has been guilty of allowing games to pass him by, but he made the most of his limited spells on the ball with a return of two goals, and he could have easily had more. Most of his touches either led to goals or caused chaos for the Feyenoord defenders.
Haaland’s frustration towards how things have been going was evident when he declined to celebrate his penalty and instead thumped the ball back into the net.
