'Enjoy the Championship!' - Man City savaged for 'embarrassing' training routine as Erling Haaland, Phil Foden, Jack Grealish & Ilkay Gundogan all appear to miss penalties with NO goalkeeper in net

Posted Wednesday, December 11, 2024 by Goal.com

Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden and Ilkay Gundogan all appeared to struggle from 12 yards as the Manchester City stars practiced penalties.

Man City stars fail to hit the target
Quartet mocked on social media
Guardiola's side take on Juventus

WHAT HAPPENED?

Man City probably didn't expect much to come from their training live stream, but when Haaland, Grealish, Gundogan and Foden all attempted spot-kicks, clips soon started spreading on social media. That's because the quartet all missed, despite there not being a goalkeeper between the sticks. Grealish and Foden's efforts in particular weren't even close to finding the target.

WHAT THE FANS SAID

"That team is cursed. Enjoy the championship," wrote @alex0101aj, in a nod to the potential punishment City could face if they are found guilty of breaching FFP rules amid the 'Trial of the Century'.

@YANITED1234567 added: "Embarrassing," and @Pratik__39 called it a "new low for Pep [Guardiola]".

However, a couple of fans defended the players by pointing out that they may have been trying to hit the crossbar or post instead of scoring.

"They're trying to hit the crossbar," reasoned @AMADTIA02202840, and @BlueMyth88 wrote: "I swear they are deliberately trying to hit the post (& not goal). I mean, you can't be that pathetic to not score [an] open post penalty."

WHAT NEXT FOR MAN CITY?

Pep Guardiola will hope his players can hit the target when they take on Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday. City are 20th in the league phase standings after poor results against Sporting CP and Feyenoord and need to pick up three points in Turin to realistically keep their hopes of finishing in the top eight and qualifying automatically for the round of 16 alive.