In the PSG barrage, City faced 26 shots – their highest total against them since a Champions League game against Real Madrid in September 2012 when the Spaniards had 35.
The sight of Matheus Nunes – an attacking operator – on the right, alongside Kyle Walker, was close to a move to AC Milan, demonstrating the kind of muddled thinking that has clouded City and Guardiola’s seasons. A flaw that needs to be addressed.
He was all at sea, as was another substitute Rico Lewis, as PSG stormed wide areas at will, with Bradley Barkola, Desiree Dou and substitute Ousmane Dembele leaving a path of destruction in their wake.
However, the loss was a collective failure by manager and team as City threatened to collapse, then did so when they conceded four goals in a game for the first time since a 5–2 home loss to Leicester City in September 2020. Done.
Even after going 2-0 up, City never looked in any shape or form to manage the game. Guardiola regards possession as nine-tenths of the law of football – here he was guilty of criminal negligence, Dembele’s goal three minutes after Holland’s second was the turning point.
Guardiola, soaked and stunned as he was, powerless to prevent a defeat that should have been far more emphatic, may now realize he has an even bigger rebuilding task on his hands. It’s more work than he thought.
The great Kevin De Bruyne looked all 33, as did Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, both 30, as PSG’s energy trumped every weakness that had plagued City this season. De Bruyne and Kovacic were both substituted after 70 minutes, spent.
The stats make grim reading for Guardiola, with City failing to win in nine games in all competitions this season (losing four and drawing five), more than any Premier League club in 2024/25.
City have lost their last three Champions League games away from home, their second-longest losing streak since four in a row between November 2011 and December 2012 under Roberto Mancini.
And it was the first time they have conceded a game by two goals since a 3-2 defeat against Brighton in May 2021.
