There are ways to bring up a century. This was scarcely the most fitting. Pep Guardiola’s 100th Champions League game in charge of Manchester City ranked as one of the worst. And for that, he really only has himself to blame.
City were beaten by managerial complacency and their own lacklustre display as well as by a rather impressive Bayer Leverkusen side. As the teams third in the Premier League and the Bundesliga met, Guardiola picked his second-string side. They came off second best. It was a gamble that backfired, and one that felt all the odder as their next fixture is against out-of-form Leeds. Did he really rest his regulars just for a relegation-threatened team? Because the consequences of a shock setback could involve a spot in the knockout play-off round that City had looked on course to bypass.
It is now back-to-back defeats for City, fresh from losing at Newcastle. It could be consecutive losses in the Champions League, given their next game is away against Real Madrid. Suddenly, this phase is looking less of a procession for them. For Leverkusen, who struck clinically through Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrick Schick, it was further evidence of the transformative impact manager Kasper Hjulmand has had after Erik ten Hag’s brief reign was aborted with embarrassing swiftness.
If the former Manchester United manager’s appointment was a mistake by Leverkusen, this City selection was by Guardiola. If the intention was to prove City were not a one-man team, it delivered precisely the wrong impression. His understudies were underwhelming. None grasped the opportunity. Guardiola, a three-time Bundesliga winner, seemed guilty of underestimating recent German champions.
He may have been lured into a false sense of security by City’s start to the competition, with 10 points banked already. Or by a record of 23 group-stage games without defeat at the Etihad Stadium. Yet Leverkusen instead became the successors to the 2018 Lyon side.
Guardiola had made 10 changes with only Nico Gonzalez retaining his place, and even he would not be a first choice if Rodri were fit. There was no Gianluigi Donnarumma, no Erling Haaland. Not initially, anyway.
Because Guardiola was forced to summon Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku and Nico O’Reilly at half-time, replacing the ineffective trio of Rico Lewis, Oscar Bobb and Rayan Ait-Nouri. After another 20 minutes, Haaland and Rayan Cherki came on. Omar Marmoush, prolific against German clubs for Eintracht Frankfurt, made scant impact against Leverkusen and made way for Haaland.
Enter the big man, a rare night off curtailed by the state of emergency. He had scored in every Champions League game this season. He almost extended the run after a pass by Foden, Mark Flekken making a fine save. The former Brentford goalkeeper made another from Cherki’s free kick. The substitutes at least made a difference. The starters had left them too much to do.
Flekken was excellent and yet, for much of the first half, a spectator. Guardiola named a starting 11 that cost in excess of £350m but there was a flatness to City. Flekken made a fine close-range save from Nathan Ake. That apart, Guardiola’s reserves fashioned too little of note in the opening 43 minutes. Then Gonzalez won the ball, Tijjani Reijnders burst forward and Flekken parried, a Dutchman again denying another. Otherwise, that sense of nothingness before the interval had prompted Guardiola to turn to his bench. Or perhaps it was the fact Leverkusen already led.
Teed up by Christian Kofane, Grimaldo arrowed a shot past the Champions League debutant James Trafford. It was an eighth goal of the season from left wing-back for the Spaniard, a remarkable return from one of Xabi Alonso’s finest signings. Most of the talismanic figures from the 2024 team who won Leverkusen’s maiden Bundesliga title have left. Not Grimaldo. Captaining them in the absence of the suspended Robert Andrich, he also played a part in the second goal.
Schick nipped in ahead of Ake to meet Ibrahim Maza’s cross with a glancing header. For him, too, it was an eighth goal of the campaign.
And if Leverkusen proved it is possible for a team playing 3-4-3 to win in Manchester this week, an injury-hit side also defended with great organisation. It was actually notable how few alarms they had, how much control they exerted. Their Champions League campaign began by going three games without a win, culminating in a 7-2 thrashing by Paris Saint-Germain.
Yet if City promised to be the other toughest opponents they faced, this was a spectacular scoreline for a very different reason. City are not used to nights like this. Nor is Guardiola. But while his team got it wrong, so did he.
