Champions League: Manchester City 4-3 Tottenham Hotspur, 3 reasons why City were knocked out
What a game! We still cannot get over what transpired at the Etihad Stadium. In a remarkable Champions League night, Tottenham reached their first ever Champions League semis in dramatic fashion. In Harry Kane's absence, Tottenham still managed to score 3 away goals at the Etihad to win the game on away goals.
Pep Guardiola made several changes to the starting lineup from last week, bringing in Bernardo Silva, Kevin de Bruyne, Vincent Kompany, and Benjamin Mendy. Raheem Sterling opened the scoring in the 4th minute for City before Son Heung-Min canceled out his goal at the other end. Before you know, the game had 5 goals in 21 minutes divided 3-2 among City and Tottenham. Sergio Aguero gave City the lead in the tie with his second-half goal. Against-all-odds, Fernando Llorente scored a controversial goal to tilt the tie towards Tottenham on away goals.
A last minute winner by Sterling canceled out by VAR interference for offside added more drama to the game, as if we needed any more of it. A spectacular night of European football. A look at three reasons why Manchester City were eliminated on the night.
#3 Defensive sloppiness from Manchester City
We never expected this from Manchester City. Their defense has been absolutely rock-solid this season, maybe that's why they don't concede much. At the Etihad Stadium, they had conceded only three goals in their last 11 games. Tottenham slotted three past them on a single night. Why? Errors.
Taking nothing away from Tottenham's finishing and attacking, City were sloppy in the defense. Take a look at the first goal. Aymeric Laporte cheaply gave the ball away, mistake number one. The shot from Son was on target, Ederson could have saved it, but no, it went past him. It has to go down as a mistake on his part. Immediately after they conceded the first goal, Laporte was at the center of mistake again. A poor first touch by Laporte picked up in the midfield by Spurs and it only took three touches to put it inside the net. Son Heung-Min at it again.
When City finally had crawled their way back, they defended the corner poorly, allowing Llorente all sorts of space to get a touch on the ball. Again, how slow was the ball when it went past Ederson? He didn't even move. Laporte has been so good this season but yesterday he crumbled under pressure. Ederson made a mistake or two. The defense was sloppy on other occasions too which we expect when they play a high line.
But again, things could have been different.