{"id":44649,"date":"2025-11-25T22:52:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44649\/"},"modified":"2025-11-25T22:52:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T22:52:14","slug":"man-city-changes-punished-with-champions-league-loss-to-bayer-leverkusen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/44649\/","title":{"rendered":"Man City changes punished with Champions League loss to Bayer Leverkusen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pep Guardiola\u2019s decision to bench a host of big names including Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma backfired as Alejandro Grimaldo and Patrik Schick fired the Germans to a memorable win at the Etihad Stadium.<\/p>\n

The defeat ended City\u2019s unbeaten record in the league phase and, with a tricky trip to Real Madrid next, their top-eight prospects suddenly look weaker.<\/p>\n

\"ManchesterPep Guardiola\u2019s decision to bench the likes of Erling Haaland and Rayan Cherki backfired (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

Haaland was among the big guns summoned in the second half but the damage was done in the first hour as a Leverkusen side thrashed 7-2 by Paris St Germain last month made light of the absence of 12 players.<\/p>\n

It was not the response Guardiola had hoped for following Saturday\u2019s reverse at Newcastle, from which only Nico Gonzalez retained his starting place.<\/p>\n

His desire to rotate amid a busy programme was understandable but the ineffectiveness of his second string, particularly in an Omar Marmoush-led attack, will be a concern.<\/p>\n

City had an early chance when Nathan Ake poked at goal following a corner but former Brentford goalkeeper Mark Flekken pushed away.<\/p>\n

It was a rare opportunity for the hosts who, despite plenty of possession, lacked bite up front as Haaland watched on from the bench.<\/p>\n

\"ErlingErling Haaland could not turn the game around off the bench (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

Leverkusen soaked up plenty of pressure but carried a threat on the break and Rayan Ait-Nouri blocked a fierce strike from Ernest Poku.<\/p>\n

The Germans grabbed the lead in the 23rd minute as they swept forward from deep. Ibrahim Maza delivered a cross from the right and Christian Kofane laid off for Grimaldo to drive in.<\/p>\n

City\u2019s response was lacklustre and it was not until the closing stages of the first half they posed any danger. That was dealt with as Flekken stuck out a leg to block a low ball from Oscar Bobb and then saved a long-range effort from Tijjani Reijnders.<\/p>\n

Guardiola made a triple change at the interval, sending on Phil Foden, Nico O\u2019Reilly and Jeremy Doku, but the tempo of the game was not altered.<\/p>\n

\"GrimaldoAlejandro Grimaldo (right) celebrates scoring past James Trafford (Martin Rickett\/PA)<\/p>\n

Leverkusen doubled their lead in the 54th minute when Schick got ahead of Ake to meet a Maza cross with a superb glancing header that James Trafford could do nothing about.<\/p>\n

Haaland was introduced with just over an hour gone and was soon in the action as he raced on to a Foden throughball but Flekken rushed out to meet him.<\/p>\n

City upped the pressure but England and former Liverpool centre-back Jarell Quansah was superb in the visitors\u2019 defence.<\/p>\n

Haaland shot over and Rayan Cherki had a free-kick saved but it was not to be on a poor night for City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pep Guardiola\u2019s decision to bench a host of big names including Erling Haaland and Gianluigi Donnarumma backfired as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[128,130,129],"class_list":["post-44649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}