Guardiola sets sights on Premier League progress after sealing last-16 place
For the seventh successive season, Manchester City are into the Champions League knockout stages and, for the next couple of months at least, Pep Guardiola can now focus all his efforts on trying to narrow the nine-point gap to Liverpool at the summit of the Premier League table.
A point on the night against Shakhtar Donetsk was enough to guarantee top spot in Group C by virtue of Atalanta beating Dinamo Zagreb and ensure Guardiola can go to Croatia next month with no need to take any unnecessary risks with his selection.
With little to no margin for error in the Premier League, given the relentless pace Liverpool have set so far and injuries proving troublesome for City, such small comforts should not be overlooked.
The champions have a daunting nine games to navigate in the next month alone.
This looked a very kind group on paper and so it has proved but, while there was never any need for City to be at their best here, this was still one of their more underwhelming showings in a season in which Guardiola’s side have yet to hit the heights that everyone knows they can.
The bar, admittedly, has been set very high so any drop off in intensity is going to be quite apparent and, with some key players to come back from injury absences, there may be a lot better to come.
And it is clear that they will certainly need to raise their game if Guardiola is to be reacquainted with the trophy he has not managed to lay his hands on since he claimed it for a second time with Barcelona in 2011.
And anyone who watched the Catalan gazing longingly at the cup with big ears at the northern Football Writers’ Association dinner in Manchester city centre on Sunday evening will know just how badly he craves it.
Despite fielding a strong line-up, there was little of the zip and zest we so readily associate with Guardiola’s sides and when Manor Solomon came off the substitutes’ bench to cancel out Ilkay Gundogan’s 56th-minute goal it did not come as too much of a surprise.
“I saw good things and I saw things we have to improve but we’re in the next stage and that’s the most important thing when you start,” the City manager said. “February will be totally different, tougher, we’ll see what condition we arrive in there [for the ound of 16] but now it’s time for us to focus on the Premier League.” From an injury crisis that has claimed Sergio Aguero as its latest victim to results that got away (the 2-2 draw against Tottenham in August) and some equally damaging league defeats, it has been a season of frustration to date for City in many respects.
Even then, it is hard to remember a first half at the Etihad that was this flat. With the notable exception of Kevin De Bruyne, who never stopped until his substitution with 20 minutes left, and the guy with a megaphone in the south stand trying desperately to drum up any kind of atmosphere, it was far too subdued on and off the pitch for many seasoned City followers.
Guardiola seemed to spend much of the first period with his hands on his head, not least when Shakhtar broke through and threatened a couple of times courtesy of long punts upfield.
There was certainly a marked lack of dynamism in midfield from City and what felt like an overdependence on De Bruyne to find the spark that would give them control and some of their usual swagger.
Phil Foden was again overlooked from the start and, if Guardiola was not going to rest Fernandinho, might this have been a game to start him in midfield instead of Rodri, who had a notable off night, rather than playing him at the back once again?
Even the usually outstanding Ederson was not quite himself to begin with. We expect Claudio Bravo to career off his line and do something daft but not the Brazilian, who is normally the coolest man on the field.
But when Mykola Matviyenko launched the ball forward, the City goalkeeper raced out of his penalty area only to swing wildly at the ball and miss. This gave Tete the opportunity to run on to it and surge towards goal. His eventual shot was heading for the net until Fernandinho, rushing back as he so often does, slid in to make a timely block and spare his compatriot’s blushes. There was another fright when Angelino misjudged goalkeeper Andriy Pyatov’s long kick forward and the ball sailed over his head for Tete to chase. The ball was pulled back to Viktor Kovalenko, who rolled it across the penalty area to Alan Patrick. It looked as if he had to at least hit the target but he somehow crashed his shot high over the crossbar.
City finally fashioned their breakthrough nine minutes after the restart with De Bruyne, unsurprisingly, the instigator, the Belgian rolling a pass into Gabriel Jesus in the penalty area.
Jesus was able to hold the ball up, then he got a lucky bounce and poked the ball through to Gundogan, who showed plenty of composure to side-foot the ball into the net, to bring some relief to an expectant crowd.
City’s lead was relatively shortlived, though. Tete picked up the ball 30 yards out and drew in Angelino before slipping in Dodo overlapping on his right. From the right byline, the right back pulled the ball back just enough to elude the covering Rodri and it fell invitingly into the path of Solomon to fire home only four minutes after coming on.