Manchester City v Feyenoord: Champions League – live | Champions League

10 minutes: The first chance, a header by Haaland, was kicked down and Wellenreuther makes a fine save. Initially, Foden’s cross had missed a rather statuesque Haaland.

8 min: Jack Grealish tries to get involved; he has been peripheral so far – and for most of the season. City keep the ball. And maintain and keep.

7 min: Is lack of tactical errors costing City? Someone might have the stats. Perhaps the old legs are struggling to keep up with fast opponents. The loss tonight has also been a bit heavy.

6 min: Gundogan is in the central role, the Rodri position. Nunes is trying to wriggle his way through – he’s in the role of ball carrier tonight. Feyenoord sits deep. And try to send Carranza away, who is coming out of a tactical error.

4 min: City doing what you would expect City to do, lots of passing, dominating possession. That said, they have done it for periods of all the games they have lost. Rico Lewis takes a hit from two defenders at once. But he’s okay.

3 minutes: Bernardo Silva – the captain – spins and spins. Haaland wants it, Gundogan gets it and his shot is blocked. The foot does not do much at the corner.

Off we go in Manchester

So the players shake hands and soon they’re off and running. Etihad is under capacity, we are told.

At the Etihad they put on another light show, though not like the one for Rodri.

By the way, Niall McVeigh provides the updates on the rest of the games from his chair.

News from other places relevant to the City: Julian Alvarez – remember him? – has scored twice for Atletico in Sparta Prague. They replaced him with…Savinho?

Krishna contacts: “Hi John (or is it Scott under a new pseudonym?)

“Losing to Spurs. Then losing to Arne’s successor. And finally losing to Arne himself. Pep certainly wouldn’t like such arranged things, a narrow win today followed by a draw at the weekend is what I predict.”

Yes, it’s John. Stands for the big man.

The headlines: De Bruyne still on the benchand so is Gimenez. Walker fell, as did Savinho.

In: Nathan Ake, Matheus Nunes and Jack Grealish. Out: Walker, Savinho and John Stones, who is not in the squad at all.

The teams are there

As always, Jonathan Wilson has thought deeply about this unexpected malaise.

And yet something is different. According to Opta, City have had the third-easiest game of any club from the start of this Premier League season, but if they lose at Anfield next week (and Liverpool are the side Guardiola has lost to second most often) will be 11 points after the leaders. The aura has gone; Opponents sense blood in the water. It’s like Chelsea in 2015-16, or Manchester United under David Moyes or Liverpool in the early 1990s. Pages no longer face them and seek simply to avoid embarrassment; they believe there is a chance for a remarkable result.

The city isn’t old, okay? Not according to Pep, that is.

Missing to town: Oscar Bobb, Ruben Dias, Mateo Kovacic and of course Rodri.

The rest looking tired is also a big problem.

For Feyenoord: Santiago Gimenez will be a big miss and he is a doubt with a thigh injury.

Brian Priske, the Feyenoord coach, Arne Slot’s successor at City: “For me they are still one of the best teams in the world, a world class team. We have seen many of their games and for example at the weekend against Spurs they were really unlucky. We know we have to play a perfect game to get a positive result, especially defensively.

More Pep: “In this situation we have to be more direct in our principles. Not much changes, in fact less than ever. One day we will win a game and our minds will be clear. I hope it will be (against Feyenoord ), if not on Sunday (against Liverpool). But the desire is there to change that and we will try.”

Does that mean they *go* directly?

And Kevin De Bruyne: “It’s been a bit chaotic. I have seen so many people walking around in the medical field. Seeing who is playing, who isn’t, people who shouldn’t be playing but did with an injury; in these games we were everywhere. Everyone is down, but we have to move on.”

Some Pep quotes from his press conference: “I still have the feeling that this season we will still do very good things. I am not giving up and I have a feeling that we will be there. We will congratulate the team that takes our crown because they deserve it , not because we gave it to them. (When) you’re defending a legacy, tradition, success, it’s so hard to handle.”

Preamble