LONDON: Manchester City plunged deeper into trouble in the Champions League by losing 2-0 at Juventus on Wednesday, the latest setback in a scarcely believable run of poor results for the ailing English champions.

City dropped to 22nd place in the 36-team standings, with only the top 24 advancing. Progressing to the next round of the new-look format looked a certainty before the season for a team that were European champions in 2023 and won the last four Premier League titles. But not anymore as City manager Pep Guardiola battles injuries and an apparent loss of belief among his players.

City have won just one of its last 10 matches in all competitions, with goals by Duaan Vlahovic and Weston McKennie inflicting the latest defeat and igniting Juventus’ qualification hopes.

City midfielder Ilkay Gundogan described the team’s problem as a “mental issue”.

Opponents “are able to break our rhythm with the smallest of things,” Gundogan said. “They don’t even need to do much and it has such a big effect on us right now.”

Barcelona jumped into second place in the league standings with 15 points, three points behind leaders Liverpool, and are guaranteed to advance after beating Borussia Dortmund 3-2 in a thriller in Germany, with Ferran Torres their hero.

Arsenal and Lille are among six teams all on 13 points, one above Dortmund, after each winning on Wednesday night.

Arsenal are ahead of Bayer Lev­erkusen, Aston Villa, Inter Milan, Brest and Lille on goal difference after Bukayo Saka’s brace helped the Gunners to a comfortable 3-0 win over AS Monaco.

French side Lille recovered from throwing away a two-goal lead to beat Sturm Graz 3-2 thanks to Hakon Arnar Haraldsson’s 81st-minute winner.

Atletico Madrid extended their winning streak to 10 matches in all competitions by beating Slovan Bratislava 3-1 to sit level on points with Dortmund and Bayern Munich.

AC Milan joined the trio on 12 points, one above fellow Serie A side Juve, after Tammy Abraham’s 87th-minute winner earned a 2-1 victory over Red Star Belgrade.

Elsewhere, Benfica were held to a 0-0 draw at home to Bologna, Feyenoord beat Sparta Prague 4-2 to move into a play-off place and VfB Stuttgart thrashed bottom club Young Boys 5-1.

The top eight qualify directly for the last 16 and the teams placed 9-24 go into a two-legged playoff.

With just eight points, City’s next game will be crucial, as they travel to a Paris St Germain side who sit a point beneath Guardiola’s men.

“We have to get points, we’ll go to Paris to try and do that and the same goes for the final match at home [to Club Brugge],” Guar­diola told Amazon Prime in Turin.

Vlahovic put Juve ahead in the 53rd when he powered a header from close range straight at City goalkeeper Ederson, who could only parry the ball over his own line.

Gundogan was denied an equaliser by a fine Michele Di Gregorio save, before Weston McKennie made it 2-0 with a fine acrobatic volley from Timothy Weah’s cross in the 75th minute as Juve moved into 14th place.

Torres came off the bench to inspire Barca to a fifth win in six games and push Dortmund, last season’s runners-up, out of the top eight.

Raphinha fired Barca ahead with his 17th goal of the season after Dani Olmo’s throughball early in a remarkable second half, but Serhou Guirassy equalised for Dortmund from the spot in the 60th.

Torres came on in the 71st to replace Robert Lewandowski, who had a quiet game against his former club. Just four minutes later, Torres scored a goal on the rebound from Dani Olmo’s shot.

Guirassy’s second goal of the game levelled the score at 2-2 but Barca took advantage of a mistake by Pascal Gross and had the final word, with Torres completing his brace in the 85th off Lamine Yamal’s pass.

“We really played a very good game. In the end, we were a bit too naive, we simply gifted them the goal,” Dortmund goalkeeper Gregor Kobel said.

ARSENAL CRUISE

Arsenal secured a third straight home win without conceding in the league stage, with Saka putting the Gunners ahead in the first half and making it 2-0 on 78 minutes as the hosts pounced on disastrous Monaco defending.

Saka then turned provider for the late third, sending in a shot that was turned into the net by substitute Kai Havertz in the 88th.

Lille were 2-0 up through Osame Sahraoui and Mitchel Bakker, only for goals by Otar Kiteishvili and Mika Biereth to bring Austrian champions Sturm Graz back level.

However, Icelandic midfielder Haraldsson secured Lille’s fourth win of the campaign.

Atletico eased to victory over Slovan Bratislava, with Antoine Griezmann scoring twice after Julian Alvarez had opened the scoring with a brilliant curling strike.

David Strelec pulled one back for the Slovaks, who are one of three teams already eliminated having lost six games out of six. The others are RB Leipzig and Young Boys.

Milan lost Alvaro Morata and Ruben Loftus-Cheek to muscle injuries in the first half but defeated Red Star at San Siro with Abraham’s late winner.

Rafael Leao had put Milan ahead only for Nemanja Radonjic to equalise for the Serbian side, who have lost five of their six games and are surely heading out.

Benfica’s five-match winning streak ended but they edged closer to a play-off spot with a home draw against Bologna of Italy, who have scored just one goal in six games and will go no further.

Feyenoord stayed on course to go through after beating Sparta in Rotterdam, with Gernot Trauner, Igor Paixao, Anis Hadj Moussa and Santiago Gimenez netting their goals.

Young Boys took the lead with just six minutes on the clock through Lukasz Lakomy, but Stuttgart found the equaliser still in the first half thanks to Angelo Stiller.

The Germans went on to score three goals in 13 minutes: Enzo Millot in the 53rd, Chris Führich in the 61st and Josha Vagnoman in the 66th. Yannik Keitel completed the win in the 76th.

Lakomy celebrated his goal by holding up the jersey of team-mate Meschack Elia, while the rest of the team gathered next to him.

The gesture was a tribute after Elia’s son died unexpectedly this week after a short illness. Elia wasn’t playing as he was on his way to his native Congo, where his son died, to be with his family.

The next round of Champions League games is scheduled for January 21 and 22, with the league phase concluding the following week.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2024