Almost continuously since Manchester City and manage Pep Guardiola’s disastrous Juventus defeat in Turin on Wednesday night, the Italian media have really enjoyed descriptions that are too lengthy to publish here.
It is important to remember that the general perception of Manchester City in Europe is that they are just a buying club without a soul and that Pep Guardiola has lost a step or two since he revitalized Barcelona over 15 years ago. among other things for Rome.
It is not held back with its assessments of Manchester City and Pep Guardiola when the Premier League side were beaten 2-0 by Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
The 36-time Serie A champions were simply too good for Guardiola’s squad, which continued its negative development, having won just one of its last ten games in all competitions.
Historically, the Turin-based team has been City’s “bogey team” in European competition for several years, with Juve now unbeaten in their last six games against the English side (four wins and two draws).
Despite what we all saw, Guardiola explained how he thought his team “played well”, something not everyone agreed with, including the Italian media.
On Sunday, it’s time for the Premier League clash between two giants in crisis. Manchester United, who are now in 13th place in the table, travel to the Etihad Stadium and face Manchester City, who must win to be sure of keeping 4th place.
Here are some of the mildest comments:
Corriere dello Sport wrote: “There have been too many moments where City have been bad: the leading team in European football is a distant memory, the crisis is palpable.
“In the many inertia and inaccuracies of the ball, in the poor mobility without the ball of midfielders and attackers, we have seen the unsettling disorientation of Guardiola.”
Calciomercato even called one of City’s star players “unrecognizable” for his lackluster performance at the Allianz Stadium. They gave Erling Braut Haaland 4/10.
The publication said: “A monumental Gatti and Kalulu [performance] turned him around. He has the pass to take the lead, but is hypnotized by Di Gregorio.
“He didn’t come to the Allianz Stadium: a night to forget for the Norwegian Viking.”
The City striker referred to the goal as the “worst [player] on the pitch”
“The Norwegian striker disappeared into the black and white shirts, unable to influence the game and wasted his only chance.”
The chance mentioned came, of course, in the 39th minute, when Kevin De Bruyne received Ilkay Gundogan’s pass, before the Belgian threaded a perfectly weighted ball through the home side’s defence that Haaland latched on to before attempting to chip the onrushing Di Gregorio.
But the Juve goalkeeper managed to stop the shot and it was the closest the Norwegian came to scoring.
The result left Manchester City in 22nd place in the 36-team Champions League group stage, which would secure them an unseeded play-off in the knock-out phase.
