Sub-standard Manchester City suffer surprise Basel defeat but still reach Champions League quarter-finals
Manchester City 1 Basel 2 (5-2 agg): Gabriel Jesus returned to City’s starting XI and scored the opening goal but the Swiss side came back to pull off a surprising win
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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 – against a plucky, organised but eminently beatable Basel side playing for little but pride. That, for a club intent on world domination, is not good enough.
This was a weakened City side and, thanks to an emphatic first-leg 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 happen, especially after Gabriel Jesus opened the scoring early on.
Yet having been overran on their own turf three weeks earlier, Basel's pride was hurt and Raphael Wicky's side were determined 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 since December 2016.
Would Real Madrid, Barcelona or Bayern Munich have contrived to lose this game after already proving they were so superior to their opponents? Defeat was a reminder that City still have some way to go to establish themselves at this rarefied level.
Sunday’s victory over Chelsea came at such a leisurely pace that changes were perhaps not necessary but Guardiola made six regardless, and the most eye-catching saw highly-rated 17-year-old Phil Foden start in midfield.
There was also a return for 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 he owed much to the in-form Leroy Sané, whose driving run across and through a crowded midfield had made it happen.
A routine evening’s work seemed in order at that point - perhaps there would even be another five-goal rout - but then came a moment that left Guardiola’s mouth agape.
When Aymeric Laporte’s proactive approach to defending saw 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 back 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 and they 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. Riveros then tested Bravo from a tight angle and this time, he was equal to the effort.
City were still comfortable, as any team with their aggregate lead 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 began to dissipate. Though they still struggled to find that final pass to split the visitors' defence, City began to assume control and as they eased 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 Yaya Touré, one of City's older heads, to blame. The Ivorian turned inside out by Elyounoussi out 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 Lang, it was a second decisive goal against a team from Manchester after he downed United late on in the group stages and it meant Basel's elimination was eased by a victory to be remembered. For City, progression, but with a defeat that should not be forgotten.
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