Manchester City fell to a 2-0 defeat to Leverkusen in the Champions League on the back of their Premier League loss at Newcastle

Manchester City ruined a streak of 23 unbeaten matches at the Etihad in Champions League group games with a 2-0 defeat to Leverkusen. The Blues could have all-but sealed at least a play-off place with a victory but never looked like getting it and were comfortably second best as Pep Guardiola’s big selection calls backfired.

Guardiola made 10 changes from the Newcastle defeat, and bringing several players in from the cold resulted in a rusty side who struggled to create anything in attack. At the back, the defending was slack to allow Alejandro Grimaldo to score the opener.

Three half-time changes only enabled Leverkusen to add a second through Patrik Schick and the introduction of Rayan Cherki and Erling Haaland was not enough to see City on the scoresheet. Here are the player ratings from the Manchester Evening News.

Trafford: Neither goal felt like his fault but it wasn’t a convincing performance and that was evident. 5

Khusanov: Some nice touches and control but he was loose for the goal and was an obvious sacrifice when City chased the game. 5

Stones: Comfortably the best of the defenders, although he wasn’t able to push forward and influence the game. 6

Ake: Looked rusty and was poor in the goals that City conceded, unable to stay ahead of the play. 4

Ait-Nouri: Caught where he shouldn’t be for the Leverkusen opener, and there were too many heavy touches and poor passes. 4

Gonzalez: The only one to keep his place from Newcastle and will likely keep it for Leeds given he didn’t do much wrong. 6

Bobb: Took the game to Leverkusen in the opening three minutes and then went missing and didn’t emerge after half-time. 4

Lewis: Couldn’t find any way to control the game, with poor decision-making in the final third and no protection for Gonzalez. 5

Reijnders: Went close with another effort that could and perhaps should have gone in, otherwise didn’t help Gonzalez out enough. 5

Savinho: Stayed on for the full 90 minutes, although it is difficult to highlight any meaningful contributions. 4

Marmoush: He showed more conviction trying to gee up the crowd than he did leading the line as he offered very little. 4

Substitutes

O’Reilly (for Ait-Nouri, 46) More solid and more running. 6

Foden (for Lewis, 46) One nice ball through for Haaland. 6

Doku (for Savinho, 46) Looked the most likely to make something happen. 6

Cherki (for Khusanov, 65) Forced a good save with a free-kick. 6

Haaland (for Marmoush, 65) Missed a decent chance through on goal. 5

Not used: Donnarumma, Bettinelli, Dias, Nunes, Gvardiol, Silva