After ceding a stunning 3-3 draw to Feyenoord in the Champions League at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, a distraught Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola revealed the reason behind the scratches on his head and nose on during the game.
The woeful hosts fluffed a three-goal lead inside 14 minutes in the secnd-half and when asked to be the cut and scratches on his face, Guardiola said: “Yes, it’s my finger here. With my nail. I want to harm myself.”
City had appeared to put a horrendous run of form behind with Erling Haaland and Ilkay Gundogan finding the net thrice in the space of nine minutes after the team entered the contest with five successive defeats for the first time since 2006.
The spectacular capitulation soon made things worse for Guardiola who has now suffered the worst win-less run of his managerial career. The Spaniard had never lost more than three games at the helm with City, Barcelona or Bayern Munich before.
‘I want to harm myself’ 👀 Pep asked about the cuts on his nose and head pic.twitter.com/VQVCQ9brzy
— BeanymanSports (@BeanymanSports) November 26, 2024
Tuesday’s result continued a woeful recent run of form for City, who had lost five successive matches across all competitions for the first time since 2006 before their capitulation against Feyenoord.
“We are not stable. We give them the first and the other ones so that’s why it’s difficult,” Guardiola told Amazon Prime Sport.
“We’ve lost a lot of games lately. We are fragile and we needed a victory. The game was good for the confidence. We played at a good level but something happened and then we had problems.
“I don’t know if it’s mental. The first goal cannot happen and the second as well. We are desperate to win and do well but we don’t win games. The situation is what it is,” said Guardiola.
City travel to Anfield for a table-top Premier League clash against Liverpool. A defeat would mean City will fall 11 points behind their long-time rivals in the title race, only 13 games into the season.
‘Didn’t intend to make light of serious issue’: Pep Guardiola issues clarification on self-harm comment
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola clarified that his comments on scratching himself after his team drew against Feyenoord 3-3 were not intended to make light of a serious issue. “I…