Sporting Lisbon 4, Manchester City 1
Manchester United’s incoming manager Ruben Amorim signed off his last home game for the club with an emotional 4-1 win over future rivals Manchester City.
Embed from Getty ImagesSwedish striker Viktor Gyokeres, once of Coventry City, hit a hat trick – as City’s blip threatened to become a slump as the Blues went from unbeaten this season to three straight defeats in a week with a 4-1 defeat at the Estadio Jose Alvalade.
City had not experienced such a run since April 2018 and although a second string Carabao Cup exit at the hands of Tottenham and a Champions League defeat in Portugal with key players still missing formed two of the three defeats the visit to Brighton on Saturday could prove to be another tricky fixture to navigate against in-form ex-United striker Danny Welbeck.
And although Pep Guardiola tried to shrug off the latest defeat for his injury hit and exhausted side – decimated by injuries to a series of first team players including Ballon d’Or winner Rodri – one of Guardiola’s trusted lieutenants admitted the squad was suffering.
Silva said: “I actually thought we started well and were controlling the game and creating chances.
“We got to half time 1-1 but at the beginning of the second half we just gave them too many chances.
“We’re in a dark place right now, everything looks to be going the wrong way.
“Even when we play well we don’t score the chances and we concede too easily.
“We need to start being better very quickly or it will be too hard to come back from these losses.”
It had all started so promisingly for City when Phil Foden scored after just 4 minutes after winning the ball high and scoring his own chance.
Erling Haaland had a couple of early chances to double City’s lead
But the Blues were pegged back by Gyokeres’ equaliser after he outpaced youngster Jamai Simpson-Pusey to score past Ederson in the 38th minute.
Seconds into the second half Maximiliano Araujo had caught City cold with another goal to put them into the lead.
Two minutes later Josko Gvardiol was penalised for a foul in the area on Trincao – allowing Gyokeres to slot him his second goal of the night from the penalty spot.
City won their own penalty after 68 minutes but Haaland smashed the ball against the crossbar to underline City’s misery in front of goal tonight.
And the embarrassment wasn’t over for City as Matheus Nunes was then penalised for tripping Geny Catamo with 12 minutes to go which allowed Gyokeres to complete his hat trick.
The scoreline may have flattered Sporting a little, and Amorim was given celebratory bumps after the game, but the modest manager played down the significance of the size of win by admitting that managing United would be an altogether different proposition.