Pep Guardiola’s 100th Champions League match in charge of Manchester City turned into a night to forget, as his heavily rotated squad slumped to a 2-0 defeat against a sharp and savvy Bayer Leverkusen side.
The three-time Champions League winner raised eyebrows with an experimental line-up featuring 10 changes, leaving out big names like Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Ruben Dias, a selection that felt more suited to a domestic cup outing than a European heavyweight clash.
Leverkusen wasted no time exploiting City’s weakened core. Alex Grimaldo opened the scoring with a precise first-half strike, before Patrick Schick added a second after the break, guiding in a header that exposed Nathan Ake’s lapse in concentration.
Guardiola reacted with a triple substitution at half-time in an effort to salvage the performance, later turning to Haaland and Cherki after the hour mark.
Haaland’s introduction briefly lifted City’s threat, but the Norwegian striker failed to convert either of his two chances, firing the second well over the bar.
From that moment on, City never truly threatened a comeback, rounding off a frustrating night defined by risky rotation and ruthless punishment from Leverkusen.
