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Just when it looked like a somewhat settled Champions League evening, Manchester City delivered again.

City’s late capitulation at home to Feyenoord was the shocking result as the new league phase entered its fifth round (each team will play a total of eight games).

In the nine games on Tuesday there were 40 goals, a few beatings and contrasting fortunes for two of Europe’s most dangerous strikers.

Here are tonight’s top talking points.

Pep Guardiola is suffering from the collapse of Manchester City

Isn’t it amazing how a few defeats can lead to complete confusion?

Manchester City may have ended their five-game losing streak with a 3-3 draw at home to Feyenoord, but the rueful, sad smile on their coach Pep Guardiola’s face reflected another humiliating evening that was perhaps the worst result of the game terrible last run.

Because that was probably the most untypical thing that happened in the last month. To be 3-0 up and absolutely firing on all cylinders with 15 minutes to go… you just don’t let leads slip like that. Actually, no one does. No team in Champions League history has ever had a three-goal lead this late in a game and failed to win.

The reasons and excuses are running out. This had nothing to do with injury and judging by the red marks on his face and nose, Guardiola was literally scratching his head.

Josko Gvardiol sparked the panic with another mistake (he contributed to two of Tottenham Hotspur’s four goals as they beat City 4-0 on Saturday), sending a terrible back pass that was too short for goalkeeper Ederson and was devoured by Anis Hadj Moussa.

Guardiola put his head in his hands and looked saddened. Maybe he knew what was coming.

After that, City’s management proved to be poor. Leading 3-2 with a few minutes left, they were still taking quick free kicks and defending on the halfway line, allowing a ball to go over the goal line, leading to David Hancko’s dramatic equalizer.

Video for British readers

Video for US readers

It was the 14th goal conceded in just four games.

Feyenoord has brutally exposed the fragility, nervousness and lack of self-confidence of a team that has won every competition imaginable for the last three years but has now forgotten how to win a football match.

Next? Liverpool are leaders in the Premier League on Sunday at Anfield.

The toothless PSG can’t help itself

We’re used to Paris Saint-Germain failing to convert their domestic dominance in French football into Champions League success, but at least they always get out of the group stage.

PSG have competed in UEFA’s top club competition every season since 2012 (during which time they won 10 of 12 Ligue 1 titles) and have made it to at least the round of 16 each time.

However, after another defeat in the new expanded league phase, 1-0 away to Bayern Munich this evening, they are now in real danger of not even reaching the play-offs in February, where the clubs are in the 36-man team in places nine to 24 in the table to decide which eight of them will complete the round of 16. Everyone from 25th place onwards? Thanks for playing. See you next season.

PSG are in 26th place with four points from five games (scoring just three goals) and still face Manchester City (home) and Stuttgart (away) in their remaining three games. However, it’s fair to say that the City game looks pretty easy at the moment.

Coach Luis Enrique is building a long-term project in Paris by saying goodbye to the Galacticos era and trying to create a young, cohesive team, with and without the ball. PSG was also affected by being left behind tonight after the red card Ousmane Dembele had to play with ten men for most of the second half.

But he doesn’t help himself with some strange decisions, such as leaving regular goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma out of the team to play against Bayern and instead favoring Matvey Safonov, who was responsible for the goal (Donnarumma also had his problems with standard situations). must be said).

Video for British readers

Video for US readers

Luis Enrique deserves scope due to PSG’s new long-term approach, but given the talent they still have, it would be a disaster if they finished outside the top 24.

Maybe PSG just doesn’t have enough match winners. Bradley Barcola epitomizes their varied form at home and abroad, with 10 goals in 12 appearances in Ligue 1 this season but neither a goal nor an assist in the Champions League so far.

In terms of sport, you feel the No Amorim effect

On the night one of European football’s new kings was set to ascend his throne, it was left to an old hand to show him how it’s done.

Viktor Gyokeres hasn’t had many free nights lately. In 25 games this season, the Lisbon Sporting CP striker had only failed to score in six of them, scoring 33 goals, leading to suggestions that he could break Lionel Messi’s record for most goals in a season.

Well, against one of Europe’s best centre-back pairings, Arsenal’s Gabriel and William Saliba, Gyokeres endured a frustrating evening, managing just a couple of tries in a terrible night for a Sporting team who missed their former manager Ruben Amorim dearly after his move to Manchester United.

Video for British readers

Video for US readers

It ended 5-1 for a composed Arsenal, who picked up where they left off with some great goals against Nottingham Forest at the weekend and got the better of Sporting at will. Gabriel even ambushed Gyokeres by imitating his goal celebration after the third goal.

Gyokeres is good, but he still has an awfully long way to go to reach the standard set by the likes of Robert Lewandowski, whose two goals in Barcelona’s breezy 3-0 home win over Brest marked a milestone for the Pole .

He is only the third player to score 100 Champions League goals, after Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and he helped put second-place Barcelona into a dominant position with 12 points. They are also the competition’s top scorers with 18 goals in five games.

USMNT’s Pulisic is one of the top players in the Champions League

Who are the strongest players in the league so far? Raphinha is at the top, as are Gyokeres, Lewandowski, Harry Kane, Jonathan David and Vinicius Junior.

Christian Pulisic is also definitely in the conversation as he has scored three goals and provided one assist in his five appearances, in addition to the five goals and four assists he has scored for Milan in Serie A this season.

On the day a trailer was released for a new documentary series about America’s Captain/Captain America, which includes contributions from Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Jürgen Klopp and has the imaginative title “Pulisic”, the 26-year-old continued his good recent form continued by scoring the first goal away to Slovan Bratislava.

To the relief of Tim Howard and Milan’s media team, he didn’t do the Trump dance in celebration.

Video for British readers

Video for US readers

Milan failed to impress against the competition’s second-worst team (Slovan lost all five games and conceded 18 goals), but managed to secure a 3-2 win thanks to further goals from substitutes Rafael Leao and Tammy Abraham.

Their 3-1 win at defending champions Real Madrid three weeks ago transformed Milan’s Champions League campaign and, despite losing their first two league stage games, they could well secure an automatic qualification place for the last 16 if they win their next two win. both at home against Crvena Zvezda (formerly and best known as Red Star Belgrade) and Girona.

If they keep Pulisic and Leao fit and fired in the second half of the season, Milan could be one to watch.

Tuesday’s results

  • Slovan Bratislava 2 Milan 3
  • Sparta Prague 0 Atlético Madrid 6
  • Barcelona 3 Brest 0
  • Bayer Leverkusen 5 Red Bull Salzburg 0
  • Bayern Munich 1 Paris Saint-Germain 0
  • Inter 1 RB Leipzig 0
  • Manchester City 3 Feyenoord 3
  • Sporting CP 1 Arsenal 5
  • Young Boys 1 Atalanta 6

What’s next?

The remaining nine games of the fifth game week of the eight-round league phase will take place on Wednesday.

  • Crvena Zvezda vs. Stuttgart (5:45 p.m. BST/12:45 p.m. ET)
  • Sturm Graz vs Girona (5:45 p.m. BST/12:45 p.m. ET)
  • Aston Villa vs Juventus (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Bologna vs Lille (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Celtic v Club Brugge (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Dinamo Zagreb vs Borussia Dortmund (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Liverpool vs Real Madrid (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • Monaco vs Benfica (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)
  • PSV vs Shakhtar Donestk (8:00 p.m. BST/3:00 p.m. ET)

(Image above: Amazon)

On By Oliver Sinclair

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