November 6 – European heavyweights Real Madrid and Manchester City both suffered damaging defeats in the Champions League on Tuesday, the latter falling to a third straight loss in all competitions for the first time since 2018.
Real, the defending champions, were humbled 3-1 at home by AC Milan (pictured), while Erling Haaland missed a penalty and City squandered a fourth-minute lead as they lost 4-1 at Sporting Lisbon, whose coach Ruben Amorim will ironically shortly be taking over at cross-town rivals Manchester United.
City, hit hard by injuries, are sixth in the expanded Champions League table but are likely to drop outside the top eight when the second set of matches in the fourth round of fixtures are played.
Amorim, the most coveted young coach in Europe, was hoisted into the air by his Sporting players after their victory while City were left shellshocked.
“I have to try to find an explanation but sometimes it’s just football so you have to accept it,” said boss Pep Guardiola. “Sport is that. Life is that. Sometimes we have bad moments but we face the reality. Everyone has to try to be better and we will find it. We are still alive in all competitions and we continue.”
Meanwhile Real coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team “should be worried” after their home defeat by Inter, their first outing since losing 4-0 to Barcelona in El Clásico.
“We should be worried because the team isn’t playing well,” said Ancelotti whose side are struggling in midtable in the new Champions League league phase while in LaLiga they’re already nine points behind leaders Barca.
“It isn’t about being patient or not, the reality is what you see on the pitch, which is that we’re missing something. The main problem we have to fix is how easily our opponents are creating opportunities.”
It was a much better evening for Liverpool, as Luis Diaz scored a hat trick and Cody Gakpo grabbed another goal in a 4-0 win over German champion Bayer Leverkusen that marred Xabi Alonso’s return to his old home.
The Leverkusen coach was given a warm welcome at Anfield where he became a fan favourite as a player over five seasons between 2004-09. Alonso won the Champions League with Liverpool in 2005.
Liverpool moved top of the league phase table with four wins from four games, followed by Sporting and Monaco, both on 10 points after three wins and a draw. Under the new 36-team format introduced by UEFA this season, the top eight teams advance directly to the next round, and those from ninth to 24th enter playoffs while the bottom 12 are eliminated.
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