Manchester City's First Dark Period Since 2018

Manchester City must find trouble getting back up (Instagram/@mancity).

JAKARTA - Manchester City's surprise defeat 1-4 when they travel to Sporting CP's headquarters in the 2024/2025 Champions League on Wednesday, November 6, 2024, has put them in a dark period.

Swedish striker Viktor Gyokeres made Sporting rise from one goal behind to surprise the 2022/2023 Champions League champions.

Pep Guardiola's team have now lost three consecutive matches in all competitions for the first time since 2018.

"At the start of the second half, we gave them too many chances to be there and score."

"Disappointing. We are in a rather dark position at the moment. Everything seems to be going wrong even though we are playing well," Bernardo Silva said as quoted by ESPN.

The Portuguese midfielder further confirmed that all team members, from coaching staff to players, must find a source of problems quickly.

"To be sure, we need to look inside, check what we didn't do well. Then, we started to get better very quickly. Otherwise, it would be difficult to get up from this defeat," Silva said again.

Manchester City is indeed hit by a storm of injuries. This situation made Guardiola's troops drop dramatically.

The Citizens had an embarrassing week. First, they were eliminated from the English League Cup (Carabao Cup) by Tottenham Hotspur.

Then their unbeaten record in 32 Premier League games ended in Bournemouth's hands last weekend.

Manchester City then carried out a revival mission while visiting Lisbon. They want to stop the two consequences defeats.

They were over the wind when Phil Foden scored a quick goal in the fourth minute. Their motivation to get up immediately increased.

However, Gyokeres buried The Citizens' dream of rising. He scored the equalizer goal just before halftime which was completely unexpected.

Just one minute into the second half, Manchester City fell behind. Mentally fell three minutes later after Sporting kept the lead 3-1 through a Gyokeres penalty.

The Citizens are sinking after Erling Haaland's penalty in the 69th minute failed to convert into a goal.

Gyokeres became a terrible predator for Guardiola's troops. He closed the winning party with a penalty in 10 minutes after dispersal.

"It's football. Look, as I said, it's hard to find a reason for what's happening right now to us."

"I don't remember in seven and a half seasons this team lost three times in a row. It looks like everything is going wrong now".

"Obviously, we need to play better. Our injured players need to come back because we need them. That's not good enough at this time," said Bernardo Silva.

The storm of injury Manchester City is not kidding. Pillar players such as Rodri, Jack Grealish, Ruben Dias, and John Stones had to be sidelined for a long time.

Guardiola also had to give the 19-year-old defender Jahmi Simpson-Pusey the first chance to play against Sporting.

Apparently, a similar composition will be lowered again when The Citizens try to bounce back at Brighton and Hove Albion this weekend in the Premier League.