Pep Guardiola Reveals WHY He Had a CUT On His Nose After Man City's Devastating 3-3 Draw With Feyenoord In The Champions League.

 Pep Guardiola reacts angrily after his Manchester City's team surrendered a 3-0 second-half lead against Feyenoord at Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night in the Champions League.

It happened that Man City who had lost five consecutive matches before facing Dutch side Feyenoord, and needed a morale boosting win on the night as the defending Premier League champions prepares to face their their toughest test of the season yet, a clash with title rivals Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday.

Erling Haaland opened the scoring in the 44th minute just before half-time to give the 2023 uclthe lead.

They returned for the second-hapf with Ilkay Gündogan doubling the lead in the 50th minute with a low long-range shot that took a deflection in as the hosts, who looked poised for a comfortable victory.

Haaland then completed his brace three minutes later when he stabbed home Matheus Nunes' cross for his 46th goal in Europe's elite competition.

Yet astonishingly, a huge defensive blunders in the dying minutes saw them lose their huge goals advantage. Josko Gvardiol made two crucial errors after his nightmare display against Tottenham in the Premier League which they lost 4-0 at the weekend.

The Croatia defender Gvardiol who cost £77m when he joined City from RB Leipzig in August 2023, was at fault again for Feyenoord's first and second goals.

Feyenoord replied with three goals inside 15 minutes, as Gvardiol horribly misplaced a backpass which allowed Anis Hadj Moussa to nip in and round Ederson to score Feyenoord's first goal in the 75th minute.

Ordinarily that would have been a mere consolation and City would have closed out the game, but Gvardiol had another moment to forget eight minutes from time.

Again he gave the ball away and Feyenoord pounced. The ball was lofted into the box and Jordan Lotomba fired a shot that glanced the post and deflected across goal, where substitute Santiago Gimenez chested in with a furious Guardiola sitting with his head in his hands for several minutes.

Dávid Hancko got the dramatic equaliser in the 89th minute when City keeper Éderson was beaten by Igor Paixão who sent a cross to Hancko to head in.

This was the first time since May 1989 that City have failed to win a game after taking a three-goal lead.

The horrendous display sees Man City being booed off the pitch at full-time, as they  fall to 15th place in the Champions League table with eight points under the new format, and they could fall even lower after Wednesday's matches.

City have now conceded two or more goals in six successive matches in all competitions for the first time since May 1963.

They have not kept a clean sheet since 26 October, when they last tasted victory in a narrow 1-0 win over struggling Southampton.

Since then they have conceded 17 goals in six matches, an astonishing statistic considering their success under Guardiola has been built on solid defensive foundations.

Pep Guardiola says Man City's loss of a three-goal lead to Feyenoord in the Champions League was 'difficult to swallow, which means that his side have failed to win their last six games, the first time that has happened since his first season in the Premier League eight years ago.

Despite making three substitutions midway through the second half, Guardiola admitted he did not see the Feyenoord staging a comeback from 3-0.

"I don't know if it is a mental thing, "The game is never over but at 3-0, I could not see any danger." Said Guardiola, who became so frustrated with his side's performance that he scratched his own face leading to a nasty cut to his nose.

"I cut it with my finger," The Spaniard told a press conference. He then appeared to joke: "I want to hurt myself."

"The game was good for the confidence, we were playing at a good level and then for the first time something happened, we have problems.

"The game was fine at 3-0, playing good, but then we concede a lot of goals because we were not stable. We gave them the first and then the other one, that is why it was difficult.

"The situation is what it is. We played a good game but at that level we can't give them away.

"We lost a lot of games lately, we are fragile and of course, we need a victory.

"Everybody knows the situation, we don't have to adapt anything. Tomorrow [Wednesday] we have to train, recovery then prepare the next game. We have two or three days to prepare for that and go for it. We will learn for the future.

"It has been a really difficult season for us for many circumstances and today, unfortunately, the game was well done, we punished them in the right moments. The team was so committed to so many things. But unfortunately, something happened and we were not strong enough. We have to avoid these mistakes."

City have work to do if they are to avoid an unwanted two-legged play-off in February to progress to the last 16.

They have to finish in the top eight to earn an automatic passage into the knockout stage.

City face two testing games at Juventus on 11 December and Paris St-Germain on 22 January next in the competition before hosting Club Brugge on 29 January.

"Right now I am not ready to think about that [needing to win their final three games to finish top eight]," added Guardiola.

"We have to recover and prepare for the next game. If we are not able to win games like we did today it is difficult to do it."

Guardiola was also quick to defend Josko Gvardiol after the Croatian endured another difficult night at the back.

"He's so young, he will learn," said Guardiola. "It will be a good experience. With the way he played, he was the best player on the pitch. I will be so wrong to point a specific thing in our defeat.

"He's a fantastic player, a fantastic boy, now more than ever he must be helped." 

The Premier League champions must pick themselves up from their dismal run of form before Sunday's trip to league leaders Liverpool. 

If City lose at Anfield, where they have not won since 2003 (excluding the pandemic-affected 2020-21 season). Liverpool have the chance to make it an 11-point lead gap going into December.

The Reds have still to play against Real Madrid on Wednesday night, and a weakened Los Blancos side at that. Real will be without Vinicius Junior, Rodrygo Goes, Aurelien Tchouameni, David Alaba, Eder Militao and Dani Carvajal. 

Liverpool come into this encounter with 12 wins in their last 13 games, the only ‘blip’ a 2-2 draw with Arsenal.