Manchester City have been handed a major blow as a pair of their stars are set to miss Newcastle this weekend and possibly the second leg of their Champions League clash with Real Madrid next week, it has been confirmed.
Manchester City fall apart again
With five minutes left to play, it looked as though Pep Guardiola’s side had done enough to take a slender lead out of their Champions League last 32 tie first leg at the Etihad, but the Premier League champions fell apart once again in the dying stages.
First, Ederson’s weak parry from a Vinicius Jr shot allowed Brahim Diaz to slot into an empty net to level the tie, before an awful pass from substitute Mateo Kovacic allowed the Brazilian in once more, with the ball eventually falling to Jude Bellingham who tapped home from five yards out to secure a 3-2 victory for the Spanish giants.
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It was the latest in a long list of games thrown away by Man City this season, and leaves them facing a massive uphill battle to stay in the Champions League this season, with the Cityzens now needing an iconic result at the Santiago Bernabéu to proceed to the last 16 of the competition.
After the game, Guardiola bemoaned his side’s “bad decisions” which cost his side again.
“Many times it happens this season. I know the quality of Real Madrid. We took the game in the second half and tried to attack too quickly. It happens because they are an exceptional team. It happens many times this season. Bad decisions, that’s all. I take it. It’s not about you and me, or just the team, it’s everyone.”
“We are just not stable enough. I’ve been here for many years and we’ve been an extraordinary team, a machine every three days,” he added, and now Guardiola will have to prepare for the trip to Madrid without some of his key men.
“Outstanding” forward joins Akanji on the sidelines
One major concern that City have is over Swiss centre-back Manuel Akanji, who was forced off in the defeat. The defender needed to be withdrawn at half time and was replaced by Rico Lewis for the remainder of the clash, forcing John Stones to move back into defence.
Now, the Times have revealed that the centre-back is set to miss several weeks with a hamstring injury, adding to Guardiola’s problems as he looks for a way back into the tie in the second leg, with Guardiola adding that he is set to miss “8-10 weeks” with the centre-back due for surgery on Saturday.
John Stones, Nathan Ake and Ruben Dias have all just returned from recent absences, and will now likely be asked to plug the gaps left by Akanji’s absence, which will affect their games against Newcastle and Liverpool in the Premier League too.
Worse still, Guardiola confirmed that Jack Grealish would also likely miss the clash with Newcastle after he needed to be subsituted in the first half of the defeat.
“It’s not as bad as Manu [Akanji] has done, but I don’t know if tomorrow he will be ready. I don’t think so, but we will see, we will assess”.
Having hailed Grealish “outstanding” just days ago, his absence will be keenly felt by the Spanish coach.
