Key events
In his post-match interview, Pep Guardiola rejects Gundogan’s analysis, and insists his team played really well but just didn’t get the rub of the green. He may well think that. They certainly dominated for long periods in terms of possession, but Juventus defended them very well and they very rarely threatened to actually score. Anyway, on to the next game, namely Manchester United at home on Sunday.
And that’s all from me. Good night/morning/whatever-it-is-where-you are everyone. Here’s a bonus match report for you.
Jamie Jackson
Jamie Jackson has filed his match report:
Missing in action during the past six weeks: Manchester City’s pizzazz. It was absent here again, in the latest moping performance that has become the odd, yet recognisable face of Pep Guardiola’s formerly supreme team.
There is now a surreal element about City’s plunge. Sides go on losing runs – sure they do – but for this champion group to lose for a seventh time in 10 games and extend their disturbing run to a meagre single victory in that time is baffling.
Much more here:
Ilkay Gundogan has a chat. He’s a very eloquent chap. I got down as much as I could, and this was the gist of it:
It’s very disappointing. I feel like we had chances to score a few goals but at the moment it just feels every attack we concede is just so dangerous. Sometimes we’re a bit careless in the duels and we overcomplicate things, and give them counterattacks and have to chase 50, 60m back. That’s not what we’re built for, you know. We’re built for possession. At the moment it’s just not working out for us.
Confidence is a big part of it, and that’s a mental issue as well. One action, we lose a duel and you see that we drop immediately, and they are able to break our rhythm with the smallest of things, they don’t have to do much and it has such a big effect on us. We have to do the simple things. It’s working hard, this is how you get the confidence back. By doing the small and simple things. It feels like crucial moments we are always doing the wrong things.
I feel like we know exactly what’s going wrong. We know the reasons. And still if you look at the most part of the games, we actually don’t play bad. We play quite good football. We just miss to score and in these kinds of games, if you give away one chance and they score, it’s not that easy to bounce back. It’s just trying to find the switch to turn things around.
Even though we’re not getting the results it doesn’t feel we’re far off it. That’s my personal feeling. As long as we don’t find that click it’s going to be tough. Every single player has to question himself, how to do better, how the player can sacrifice more to contribute to the team.
City are 22nd in the bonkers Champions League table. They need to finish above 25th if they are to stand a chance of progressing. Next they play the team currently 25th, Paris St Germain.
A “clear victory” for Juventus, a “big step forward” for Motta, and a “perfect game” overall, according to Carlo Laudisa of the Gazzetta dello Sport.
Vlahovic scuote la Juve, McKennie la esalta. Netta vittoria sul Manchester City e Motta fa un salto importante in Champions. Gara perfetta. #UCL
— Carlo Laudisa (@carlolaudisa) December 11, 2024
That’s one win and seven – seven – defeats in 10 games now for City. It is the rankest form.
Juventus (1.14) 2-0 (1.17) Man City
— The xG Philosophy (@xGPhilosophy) December 11, 2024
Final score: Juventus 2-0 Manchester City
90+3 mins: It’s all over, and Manchester City lose again!
90+1 mins: There’ll be a couple of minutes of stoppage time. Lewis’s shot was deflected into Gatti’s thigh. His arm was nearby, and a bit away from his body, but I’m not sure the ball actually hit it.
90 mins: Lewis has a shot, which is deflected into the keeper’s arms. City think it was a handball, and VAR will have a look. “Memories of games like this will be so annoying if Manchester City win the Champions League anyway,” writes Kári Tulinius. “That said, they are so so so bad right now, that I wouldn’t expect them to win a raffle even if they bought all the tickets.”
89 mins: City have had a lot of possession in the final third, but they’ve converted it into one shot on target in the second half.
87 mins: City bring Matheus Nunes on for Grealish.
86 mins: Bernardo Silva is booked now. Di Gregorio takes his time picking up the ball, so the Portuguese runs up and pushes Federico Gatti into him, which appears not to be allowed.
85 mins: Another pair of Juventus substitutions: Yildiz and Vlahovic go off, and Douglas Luiz and Samuel Mbangula come on.
84 mins: Grealish earns the game’s first booking, for tripping Locatelli. He’s not had a great game.
81 mins: Savinho came on for Doku a couple of minutes ago. City will hope their substitution pays off as quickly and emphatically as Juventus’s did.
79 mins: Weah’s first attempt was obviously a low cross and not a shot. Anyway, that goal couldn’t have been more against the run of play, but Juventus’s plan is to sit back in numbers and break at pace, and you can hardly blame them for executing it, now can you?
76 mins: It starts with Danilo taking the ball off the toes of Doku on the Juventus left. He passes infield to McKennie, who releases Weah into the right side of the area with an excellent pass. Weah tries a low cross and hits a defender but the ball deflects back to him, and at the second attempt he picks out McKennie’s run into the area, and the American scissor-kicks into the corner! Everything about that move, except the one thing that wasn’t which I’m going to ignore because the thing overall was so good and doesn’t deserve to be dragged down by one poorly-conceived pull-back, was perfect.
GOAL! Juventus 2-0 Manchester City (McKennie, 75 mins)
Juventus break, and double their lead!
72 mins: Doku is hanging out on the right a bit now, as City try to change things up. De Bruyne has another shot, and this one goes over the bar.
69 mins: Conceicao goes off, and Timothy Weah comes on. In other news, Weston McKennie replaces Thuram.
68 mins: Gundogan is teed up on the edge of the area, but Di Gregorio predicts where he’s going to shoot and is most of the way there before he does. He still needs to put in a good dive to turn the ball round the post, mind.
66 mins: De Bruyne takes a shot from the edge of the D, which flies wide.
65 mins: Juventus are defending excellently, and they’re really having to. De Bruyne seems to be playing in second gear, but also to be repeatedly picking them apart.
63 mins: City are regularly threatening at the moment. De Bruyne finds Doku on the left but Haaland is the only player attacking the six-yard box and he runs to the near post and the ball goes, low and hard, to the far.
59 mins: Grealish almost has a shooting chance 20 yards out but there are too many bodies in front of him so he shifts it right to Bernardo Silva, who has fewer defenders to avoid but hits one of them anyway.
57 mins: Doku runs in from the left to create a shooting chance, but it’s excellently blocked, and when it rebounds to Lewis his effort is excellently booked too.
55 mins: Federico Gatti leads the break and once he passes the ball to his right he keeps going into the penalty area. When the ball eventually comes in he meets it with a decent shot, but it’s too close to Ederson who pushes it away. It’s half-cleared, crossed back in and this time Vlaovic wins the header. This too is too close to Ederson but he pushes to the side, and it spins to the left and just over the line by the barest smidgeon before Ederson claws it away.
GOAL! Juventus 1-0 Manchester City (Vlaovic, 53 mins)
Well they have now! Vlaovic hits Ederson with his header, but the referee’s wrist-based goal alert device pings!
52 mins: Juventus have had the ball for the best part of two minutes without at any stage threatening to leave their half with it.
50 mins: De Bruyne is found in space on the right, and he picks out a lovely pass infield to Gundogan, who gets a bit excited about being inside the penalty area with the ball at his feet and shoots it into the nearest defender.
47 mins: Conceicao win a corner, which is headed out to Yildiz, whose shot is so badly miscued it picks out Koopmeiners, the corner-taker, out on the right flank, who is offside.