City handed a painful reminder by Basel on European pedigree
SOME scoffed when Pep Guardiola suggested his side cannot yet be compared with the members of European football’s elite, but on this evidence he may have a point.
Manchester City fell to their fourth defeat of the season — their first at home in 459 days — to a plucky, organised but eminently beatable Basel side playing for little but pride.
That, for a club intent on world domination, is sub-standard.
This was a weakened City side and, thanks to an emphatic firstleg win, one never in danger of not reaching the Champions League quarter-finals, but such a limp defeat should still not have been allowed to pass, especially after Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring early on.
Yet after being overrun on their own turf three weeks earlier, Basel’s pride was hurt and Raphael Wicky’s team would not leave this competition quietly.
If Mohamed Elyounoussi’s equaliser came as a surprise to the Etihad, Michael Lang’s winner sent shockwaves through a stadium that had not witnessed its side beaten in so very long.
Would Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich have contrived to lose this game after proving they were so superior to their opponents? Defeat was a reminder that this club still has some way to go to establish itself at this rarefied level.
Sunday’s victory over Chelsea came at such a leisurely pace that changes were perhaps not necessary but Guardiola ( right) made six regardless, and the most eye-catching saw highly-rated 17-yearold Phil Foden start in midfield.
There was also a return for Gabriel Jesus, making his first start since New Year’s Eve, and it took him just eight minutes to end a goal drought dating back to mid-November.
The finish could not have been simpler, into an open net at the far post, but Jesus owed much to the in-form Leroy Sane, whose driving run across and through a crowded midfield had made it happen.
A routine evening’s work seemed in order, perhaps even another five-goal rout, but then came a moment that left Guardiola’s mouth agape.
When Aymeric Laporte proactive defending left him caught too far up-field, Basel countered quickly through Blas Riveros, who was given the freedom of the Etihad’s left flank.
Having burst into the penalty area virtually unopposed, the wing cut the ball to Mohamed Elyounoussi and, as on so many occasions last season, Claudio Bravo was well-beaten by the opposition’s first shot on target. One down for Basel, four to go, but the scale of the task at hand did not seem to intimidate the Swiss champions, who continued to create openings.
Elyounoussi found himself bearing down on goal again just after the half-hour mark but lost his balance as he prepared to pull the trigger, then Riveros tested Bravo from a tight angle.
City were still comfortable, as any team with a five-goal cushion would be, but this was far from the cakewalk they had expected.
All Basel’s best work at the end of the first half was almost undone in the opening minutes of the second, however.
Rushing out of his area, visiting goalkeeper Tomas Vaclik mistimed a clearance which cannoned off Jesus’ shins and glided over his head.
The error could have gifted City an undeserved lead, but the ball dropped mercifully wide of goal.
With that hairy restart, what momentum Basel had dissipated. Though they still struggled to find that final pass to split the visitors’ defence, City began to assume control and, as they began to ease towards the last eight, Guardiola felt it fit to introduce Brahim Diaz, another talented but untested academy product.
That sense of security was misplaced, however, and Basel would come again.
It was one of City’s older heads, Yaya Toure, to blame, the Ivorian turned inside out by Elyounoussi on the right flank. Basel’s scorer turned creator with a neat pass inside the full-back to Lang, who finished emphatically past Bravo at a tight angle.
For Basel a memorable victory to ease elimination. For City, progression, but a defeat that should not be ignored.
That wasn’t lost on City defender John Stones, who admitted after the game: “We’re through to the next round and that’s what matters. We wanted to make sure we got through to the next round and bettered last season, when we got knocked out at Monaco.
“It hurt, we wanted to put it right and we’ve done that but we’re not happy with how we played tonight.
“There are a lot of things we need to look at, individually and as a team. We weren’t at our best.
“We set ourselves high standards and we did not hit that standard but I think we’ve got a good mentality about us.”
Toure added: “They (Basel) deserved to win and we’re not happy with that. We have a game on Monday against Stoke and we have to do better.”