Champions League: Manchester City's struggles continue, Christian Pulisic scores again
Manchester City's five-game losing streak finally came to an end on Tuesday — just not the way anyone expected.
The four-time defending English champs squandered a 3-0 lead over visiting Dutch side Feyenoord in the final 15 minutes of the second half, settling for a stunning 3-3 tie and just a single point on Matchday 5 of the UEFA Champions League first round.
Elsewhere, Christian Pulisic's blistering start to the 2024-25 season continued with another Champions League goal on Tuesday. The U.S. men's national team star's first half strike helped Italian titans AC Milan beat Slovan Bratislava away from home, a 3-2 win that gave the Rossoneri its third straight victory in the opening round of the world's top club competition.
In Portugal, England's Arsenal made quick work of Sporting Lisbon on the way to a 5-1 victory. In Spain, Barcelona breezed past French squad Brest to climb into second place behind Inter Milan, while Bayern Munich rode a Kim Min-jae goal to narrowly beat 10-man Paris Saint Germain in a rematch of the 2020 final that was won by the German titans.
Here are three quick highlights from Tuesday's matches.
Manchester City's struggles laid bare
Man City has been so good for so long under Pep Guardiola that the freak-out level stayed relatively low even as the Sky Blues losing streak dragged on; Tuesday marked a month to the day since City earned so much as a point in any match.
Guardiola, who inked a contract extension last week, has earned the benefit of the doubt. So have his players. The Cityzens were always going to thump someone eventually, and that someone looked to be Feyenoord. Though they kept the host of the board for almost all the first half at City of Manchester Stadium, the dam broke with a 44th minute penalty award, which Erling Haaland duly took advantage of. İlkay Gündoğan doubled the lead shortly after the intermission. Haaland then added City's third.
The outcome seemed beyond doubt at that point. But City's defensive issues were laid bare over the last quarter-hour. Anis Hadj-Moussa first cut the hosts' lead to 3-1 on a preventable play. Mexican forward Santiago Giménez made things interesting by making it 3-2.
Sure enough, the equalizer came from center back Dávid Hancko in the 89th minute — completing one of the most unlikely Champions League comebacks in recent memory. The losing streak may be over, but the problems for Guardiola & Co. clearly are not.
Arsenal drubs Sporting Lisbon to get back on track
On paper, the Gunners visit to Lisbon was a tricky one. On the field at Estádio José Alvalade it was anything but. Arsenal, which suffered a 1-0 defeat at Inter earlier this month, took the lead via Gabriel Martinelli after just seven minutes and never looked back.
It was 3-0 and halftime and 5-1 before it was over, with five different scorers for the Londoners. The only blemish on the night for Mikel Arteta's team was the goal it gave up to Gonçalo Inácio just after halftime.
The lopsided win vaulted the Gunners into seventh place for now. They'll host Monaco at the Emirates on Matchday 6.
Christian Pulisic's AC Milan teammates come to the rescue
It was a consistent theme over the campaign's first couple of months: the seven-time European champs dropping points despite Pulisic's consistent, career-best production. Conceding three straight goals in a 3-1 September loss to Liverpool after the American had given Milan an early lead is the prime example.
Milan lost its next Champions League game, too, to Bundesliga holders Bayer Leverkusen. But a pair of subsequent 3-1 wins over Club Brugge and especially defending titlist Real Madrid in the Spanish capital has clearly boosted the players' confidence, even if consecutive draws in Serie A play in the two games afterward didn't show it.
Tuesday's triumph felt like a game Milan might not have won earlier this season — not after it took the hosts just three minutes to cancel out Pulisic's clinical opener.
His teammates came to the rescue this time. Rafael Leão (who surprisingly came off the bench) and Tammy Abraham scored in the second half, and that two-goal cushion proved crucial after Slovan pulled another one back with just two minutes of regular time remaining.
There's obviously a difference between Slovan and Liverpool. The former, at 0-5, sits dead last in the 36-team table. Still, winning away in the Champions League is never a formality. And the three points count just the same for Milan, which is now in position to advance to the knockout stage as the tournament enters the final stretch.
Doug McIntyre is a soccer reporter for FOX Sports. A staff writer with ESPN and Yahoo Sports before joining FOX Sports in 2021, he has covered United States men's and women's national teams at FIFA World Cups on five continents. Follow him @ByDougMcIntyre.