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• Guardiola remains positive despite ongoing Man City woes

  Pep Guardiola remained upbeat despite watching Manchester City's alarming slump in form continue with a 2-0 defeat at Juventus in the Champions League.

  The Spaniard's side sit 22nd in the Champions League table and are at risk of missing out on the next stage of the competition with only two games left to play.

  City have lost seven of their last 10 matches across all competitions (W1 D2), as many defeats as they had suffered in their previous 105 matches combined (seven).

  In fact, for the first time in his managerial career, Guardiola has failed to win three consecutive matches in the group/league phase of the Champions League (D1 L2). For the Citizens, meanwhile, it is their longest such run since the 2014-15 campaign (four - D2 L2).

  "We played good, really really good," Guardiola told reporters. "So we missed the last pass, the last action, of course, some transitions happen, but I'm so proud of these players, they give everything, and they tried, and now we live in this period, and hopefully we can change and get results.

  "I know it's difficult, it's difficult in the Champions League in Europe, but we play really good."

  City's last two matches in the group phase are against Paris Saint-Germain and Club Brugge.

  The competition's new format sees the top eight teams after eight rounds of the league phase advance into the round of 16 and avoid a playoff, which is now almost out of reach for Guardiola's team.

  "We have two games. We need one point maybe, one victory, the last one is at home, and the situation is because the game against Feyenoord [when City gave up a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3] and especially Inter [a 0-0 draw]," the Spaniard added.

  "But our three games away were really, really, really tough, and you have to accept it. And when we turn around, we don't forget that period, we appreciate more what we have done in the past, what they are going to in the future."

  Since the start of November, City have conceded more goals across all competitions than any other team from Europe's big five leagues (21 in nine games).

  They have also gone eight games without a clean sheet away from home in all competitions; the joint-longest such run of Guardiola's managerial career (also a run of eight in October 2016).

  Unlike his manager, Ilkay Gundogan was left frustrated with the team's performance.

  "Every attack we concede is so dangerous, and we are careless in the duels," Gundogan told TNT Sports.

  "Instead of playing simple, we overcomplicate things by not timing things to pass the ball or release the ball. 

  "We lose balls in transition every time, giving them counter-attacks. We have to chase 60 metres back and that's not what we're built for. We are built for possession, to keep the ball and be strong. If you can't do anything in the duel, don't lose it, and it's not working out for us.

  "We know exactly what is going wrong, we know the reasons. We haven't played bad. If you give away one chance, and they score, it's not easy to come back. 

  "It's obvious what is going wrong, it's just trying to find that switch to turn things around. Even if we're not getting the results, I don't think we're far off - which maybe sounds a little stupid, but that's what I feel. 

  "If we don't click, it's going to be tough. Only thing we can do is for every single individual to question themselves to do better, to sacrifice more and to contribute to the team so we can collectively get better."

• Simeone wary of Champions League challenges despite winning run

  Diego Simeone hopes Atletico Madrid can continue their excellent recent form to clinch a top-eight spot in the Champions League, but he remains wary of the challenges ahead.

  Atletico won a 10th game in succession as they eased past Slovan Bratislava 3-1 at home on Wednesday, a result that leaves them one point outside the top eight with games against Bayer Leverkusen and RB Salzburg still to come.

  It is Atletico's longest winning run in over a decade, since winning 13 in a row between August and October 2012. 

  "There are two games left, and they are very good teams," Simeone said. "We face Leverkusen, one of the best in the competition, and we will see how far we can go.

  "We will give our maximum and see what the sum of our points brings us."

  Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann, who scored a double, eased Atletico to victory against Slovan, though Simeone was left to rue a conceded penalty that briefly sent jitters through his side as the visitors made it 2-1.

  "The effort was there," he said of Wednesday's performance. "The first half was controlled, with important chances, and then in the second, it was also controlled beyond that penalty.

  "The players managed it well, and we won a game in which we cared a lot about the three points."

  Atletico have been magnificent on their 10-game winning run, scoring 30 goals in that streak, effectively putting their sluggish start to the campaign behind them.

  "It's football and football turns, changes, with moments of difficulty and others that lead you to be very good. We know what we have [in the team], where we are going, and we always try to improve."

  Wednesday's match was notable for the fact that at one stage both coaches had their sons on the pitch. Giuliano Simeone started for Atletico, while Slovan coach Vladimir Weiss brought on his son, also Vladimir, for the final six minutes.

  "I think that if the coach [Weiss] has chosen to put the player on, he did not think of putting his son on. Like me, neither of us have looked at them as a son, we look at them as footballers," Simeone added.

  Among teams who have scored 100+ goals in the Champions League, only Lionel Messi (20.4% for Barcelona) has scored a higher percentage of a club's goals in the competition than Griezmann has for Atletico (19% - 36/189).

  All of his Champions League goals for the Rojiblancos have come under Simeone. Only Messi under Pep Guardiola (43) and Mohamed Salah under Jurgen Klopp (41) have scored more goals under the same manager in the competition.

  "The Champions League is complicated, goals matter a lot," Griezmann said. "It is a shame about the penalty. In the second half, we let them have the ball a lot. These are things to improve as always, but we are on the right track."

• Feyenoord 4-2 Sparta Prague: Quick start eases hosts to win

  Two early goals laid the foundation for Feyenoord to boost their Champions League hopes with a comfortable 4-2 win over Sparta Prague on Wednesday.

  Two goals in 90 seconds from Gernot Trauner and Igor Paixao gave Feyenoord a dream start, with Anis Hadj Moussa and Santiago Gimenez adding the goals that keep them on course for a spot in the knockout stages.

  The Dutch hosts needed only eight minutes to get on the scoresheet from a corner with Trauner's downward header wrong-footed Peter Vindahl.

  The second came when Feyenoord's pressing stripped Kaan Kairinen of possession and Paixao ran from the halfway line before bending the ball wide of the goalkeeper.

  Hadj Moussa scored a stunner 30 minutes in, cutting inside from the right to fire a left-footed shot into the top corner. Feyenoord then failed to clear a long throw that was flicked onto Albion Rrahmani at the back post to make it 3-1 in the 43rd minute.

  Gimenez restored the comfortable margin when he took advantage of a defensive slip to bundle the ball over from close range just after the hour mark, while Sparta's second goal came from a cross in the 79th minute which was steered home by a sliding Thomas Beelen into his own net.

  Feyenoord moved on to 10 points, while Slavia suffered a fourth defeat in six group games and have a tough task to avoid elimination.

  Data Debrief: A happy reunion

  The match saw Brian Priske reunited with the team he took to the double in the Czech Republic last season, with his former assistant Lars Friis now in charge at Sparta.

  Only Barcelona (five) have scored three or more goals in more different Champions League games this season than Feyenoord (four), who netted three first-half goals and four goals overall for the first time in the competition.

  Having led 2-0 after just 10 minutes, it is the quickest two-goal lead Feyenoord have held in a major European game since September 1972.

  Meanwhile, Sparta have failed to win any of their last 15 away games in the Champions League (D3 L12), the joint-longest ongoing such winless streak in the competition (level with AEK Athens, whose last game was in 2018).