Man City are making things difficult for themselves

Man City are making things difficult for themselves
Man City have lost a three-goal lead over Feyenoord and were held to an unbelievable 3-3 draw by the Dutch side at the Etihad, continuing to sink deeper into crisis. The winless streak of the blue half of Manchester has now extended to six matches in all competitions, including five consecutive defeats.

In the Champions League, Man City have only eight points after five matches and have dropped to 15th place in the 36-team table. The reigning Premier League champions are at risk of falling further after the series of matches taking place tonight

According to the schedule, Man City will face “stormy” away trips to the two giants Juventus and PSG in the next two matches. After that, coach Pep Guardiola’s team will close the group stage by hosting Club Brugge at home.

Nightmare scenario awaits Pep Guardiola

According to the new format, the top 8 teams will qualify for the knockout round, while the teams from 9th to 24th will play a play-off to choose the remaining 8 spots.

The Manchester Evening News (UK) calculated that Man City almost certainly needs at least 7 points in the last 3 group matches to have any hope of securing a place in the top 8, the group eligible to go straight to the round of 16.

This is not an easy task for Man City if we look at their disastrous form in recent times. In addition, Juventus (ranked 16th with 7 points), PSG (ranked 26th with 4 points) and Club Brugge (ranked 23rd with 6 points) are all in a situation where they are forced to cherish every point in the hope of getting a ticket to the next round.
Currently, up to 9 teams have achieved double-digit points. The likes of Inter Milan, Barcelona and Liverpool are edging closer to securing a top-eight finish.

For City, there is an increasing risk that they could be forced into a play-off in February. If that happens, it would add two more games to their already packed schedule, something that Pep Guardiola is not keen on as his side are in the midst of an injury crisis.

In fact, City are still at risk of being eliminated if they finish outside the top 24. However, the Manchester Evening News considers the Premier League champions’ chances of this happening to be “unlikely”, as some of their opponents in the bottom half of the table are also facing difficulties.

“I’m not ready to think about that now (the task of winning the final three games to finish in the top eight). We have to recover and prepare for the match against Liverpool. “If we can’t win games like today it will be very difficult to do that,” said coach Pep Guardiola after the draw with Feyenoord.