Manchester City’s struggles continued as Pep Guardiola’s side remarkably blew a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday, while Bayern Munich beat Paris Saint-Germain to leave the French club in danger of elimination.
There were also big wins for Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen, while Inter went top of the standings after five games and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski reached 1000 Champions League goals.
However, the biggest drama came at the Etihad Stadium in Manchester where City were cruising early in the second half with a three-goal advantage as they sought to end a run of five successive defeats in all competitions.
Photo: AFP
Erling Haaland opened the scoring from a penalty just before half-time, and Ilkay Gundogan’s deflected shot made it 2-0 in the 50th minute.
Haaland struck again to make it 3-0, but Feyenoord’s comeback began on 75 minutes when Anis Hadj Moussa took advantage of hapless defending to round goalkeeper Ederson and pull one back.
Substitute Santiago Gimenez bundled in to make it 3-2 on 82 minutes and the equalizer arrived a minute from the end.
Photo: AFP
Ederson was again caught out with Igor Paixao going around the goalkeeper and crossing for Slovak international David Hancko to head in.
“We concede a lot of goals because we are not stable,” Guardiola said. “We lost a lot of games lately. We are fragile and of course we need a victory.”
It is the first time that a team have gone into the last 20 minutes of a Champions League game trailing by three goals and still avoided defeat, as the point boosts the Dutch side’s hopes of progressing.
Photo: AFP
City are two points outside the top eight places which offer direct qualification for the last 16, while Bayern moved above them by beating PSG 1-0 in Munich, Germany.
South Korean defender Kim Min-jae scored the only goal seven minutes before half-time, heading in after goalkeeper Matvei Safonov failed to clear a corner.
PSG had Ousmane Dembele sent off in the second half and the French champions have just four points and three goals, from five games.
They are a lowly 26th in the 36-team league, a point adrift of the positions which offer a place in the play-off round in February.
“We need to win our last three matches, otherwise we risk being eliminated,” PSG manager Luis Enrique said.
Lewandowski notched his 100th goal in the competition with an early penalty in Barcelona’s 3-0 home win over French side Stade Brestois 29.
Dani Olmo netted midway through the second half before Lewandowski sealed Barca’s win at the death, his 101st goal in the Champions League — only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more.
Inter lead the standings with 13 points, a point ahead of Barcelona and Liverpool, after a 1-0 win at home to RB Leipzig which means they are also still yet to concede a goal.
Castello Lukeba’s own goal made the difference at San Siro, and Leipzig are one of only three teams to have lost five games out of five.
Arsenal romped to a 5-1 victory away to Sporting in Lisbon, as the Portuguese side adapt to life without manager Ruben Amorim, who has departed for Manchester United.
Gabriel Martinelli, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Magalhaes all scored in the first half for Arsenal, before Goncalo Inacio pulled one back shortly after the restart.
Bukayo Saka converted a penalty on 65 minutes after Martin Odegaard had been brought down, and Leandro Trossard headed in to seal Arsenal’s win late on.
Atalanta romped to a 6-1 win over rock-bottom Young Boys in Switzerland, with Mateo Retegui and Charles De Ketelaere both scoring braces.
Sead Kolasinac and Lazar Samardzic also netted for the Italians, with Silvere Ganvoula getting the hosts’ reply.
Florian Wirtz struck twice, including a penalty, as Leverkusen crushed Red Bull Salzburg 5-0, with Alejandro Grimaldo scoring a superb free-kick and Patrik Schick and Aleix Garcia also netting.
Julian Alvarez and substitute Angel Correa each scored twice and Marcos Llorente and Antoine Griezmann once as Atletico romped to a 6-0 win away to Sparta Prague.
Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and Tammy Abraham were the scorers in AC Milan’s 3-2 win at Slovan Bratislava, whose goals came from Tigran Barseghyan and Nino Marcelli.
Marko Tolic saw red at the end for Slovan, who are without a point.
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