PARIS - Manchester City’s Champions League woes continued as Pep Guardiola’s side astonishingly surrendered a three-goal lead to draw 3-3 with Feyenoord on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Bayern Munich edged Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in a result that puts the French champions on the brink of elimination.
There were also big wins for Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen, while Inter Milan went top of the standings after five games and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski reached a century of Champions League goals. However, the biggest drama came at the Etihad Stadium, where City were cruising early in the second half with a three-goal advantage as they sought to end a run of five successive defeats in all competitions.
Erling Haaland opened the scoring from a penalty just before half-time, and Ilkay Gundogan’s deflected shot made it 2-0 in the 50th minute.Haaland struck again to make it 3-0, but Feyenoord’s comeback began on 75 minutes when Anis Hadj Moussa took advantage of hapless defending to round goalkeeper Ederson and pull one back.
Substitute Santiago Gimenez bundled in to make it 3-2 on 82 minutes and the equaliser arrived a minute from the end. Ederson was again caught out with Igor Paixao going around the goalkeeper and crossing for Slovak international David Hancko to head in. “We concede a lot of goals because we are not stable,” complained Guardiola. “We lost a lot of games lately. We are fragile and of course we need a victory.”
It is the first time that a team has gone into the last 20 minutes of a Champions League game trailing by three goals and still avoided defeat, as the point boosts the Dutch side’s hopes of progressing. City are two points outside the top eight places which offer direct qualification for the last 16, while Bayern moved above them by beating PSG 1-0 in Munich.
South Korean defender Kim Min-jae scored the only goal seven minutes before half-time, heading in after goalkeeper Matvei Safonov failed to clear a corner. PSG had Ousmane Dembele sent off in the second half and the French champions have just four points, and three goals, from five games.
They are a lowly 26th in the 36-team league, a point adrift of the positions which offer a place in the play-off round in February. “We need to win our last three matches, otherwise we risk being eliminated,” admitted PSG coach Luis Enrique.
Barcelona celebrated a comfortable 3-0 victory over Brest, highlighted by Robert Lewandowski reaching 100 Champions League goals. Dani Olmo also scored, and Lewandowski’s late strike brought his tally to 101. Only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have surpassed this milestone.
Elsewhere, Inter Milan climbed to the top of the standings with a 1-0 win over RB Leipzig, courtesy of an own goal by Castello Lukeba. Arsenal dazzled in Lisbon, defeating Sporting 5-1, while Atletico Madrid and Atalanta each scored six in commanding victories over Sparta Prague and Young Boys, respectively.