Man City 42-second meltdown leaves serious questions for Pep Guardiola
And now, the end is near. And so I face the final curtain.
Sporting have adapted the words to turn My Way into a club classic yet the Frank Sinatra version seemed apt for what had been dubbed in the Portuguese media as 'more than a match'. All four stands paid tribute to Ruben Amorim before the game for breaking the Benfica-Porto duopoly as the coach took charge of his final home game before joining Manchester United later this month.
On the pitch meanwhile, Manchester City were fighting to show that this is not a team on the way down after consecutive defeats for an ageing side and a manager with just six months remaining on his contract. Can the Blues keep their show going and do what Bernardo Silva has said is expected of them: "start winning again and again and again"?
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It was a bold call from Pep Guardiola to hand centre-back Jahmai Simpson-Pusey his full debut less than a week after his first appearance and a day after his 19th birthday, and it was a confident start that saw Phil Foden silence the home fans in the opening minutes with a drilled finish past the goalkeeper. Here were the Premier League champions happy to spoil the party, bossing a side that have won their 10 league games this season by an aggregate of 35-3.
City could have racked up plenty more in a dominant first half, with Erling Haaland denied several times and Matheus Nunes and Bernardo also going close. It was probably their best half for a while, so it said a lot that they went in level; like too many games already this season, City were too easily and too quickly played through