losing streak<\/span> He questioned Guardiola’s decision to leave out a number of star players, including top scorer Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n\u201cI take full responsibility,\u201d the city manager said. “It was too much. It’s the first time I’ve ever done this in my life, and it was too much.”<\/p>\n
Guardiola admitted his mistake at half-time at the Etihad Stadium, making three changes after Leverkusen went into half-time leading 1-0. And by the time he finally sent Haaland on, the German team’s advantage had doubled.<\/p>\n
However, even the introduction of the Norwegian striker was unable to turn the game in City’s favor, resulting in their fifth loss in all competitions this season, adding to the pressure ahead of next month’s Champions League match against Real Madrid.<\/p>\n
Guardiola made significant changes to his line-up after the Premier League defeat to Newcastle at the weekend. However, his bold team choice backfired, with City looking disjointed after so many changes. <\/p>\n
This is the first time this season that Haaland has been left out of the starting lineup for a Premier League or Champions League match. He has scored 22 goals for club and country.<\/p>\n
“You never know what will happen against other players. Everyone thinks that with Erling, Berni (Bernardo Silva) and other players we will be better, but I don’t have an answer,” Guardiola said. “You can’t play Erling for 95 minutes.”<\/p>\n
Alejandro Grimaldo opened the scoring for Leverkusen in the 23rd minute, followed by Patrik Schick’s second goal with a header in the 54th minute.<\/p>\n
Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjurmand said: “No matter who we put on the pitch, we are a high-quality team.” “It’s a great team. I think we did well no matter who played.”<\/p>\n
City fell behind at this stage last season, ultimately ending their title defense and leaving them in contention for a place in the Champions League play-offs.<\/p>\n
It was only their first loss in the Champions League this season, but depending on Wednesday’s results, they could drop down in the standings. They will face Real Madrid on December 10th.<\/p>\n
With matches being played every few days, “everyone has to participate,” Guardiola said.<\/p>\n
“But looking at the results, it may have been too much.”<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
James Robson is https:\/\/x.com\/James Saran Robson<\/span><\/p>\n___<\/p>\n
AP Soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MANCHESTER, England (AP) \u2014 Pep Guardiola has made 10 changes to his team and Manchester City. paid the price. The Champions League title was decided on Tuesday after losing 2-0 to Bayer Leverkusen. losing streak He questioned Guardiola’s decision to leave out a number of star players, including top scorer Erling Haaland. \u201cI take full<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer"},"yoast_head":"\n
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