Manchester City and Pep Guardiola will head into the Manchester derby on Sunday after a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Juventus in the Champions League.

With two games left to play in the league phase of the new format, Guardiola’s side face a home-and-away playoff (at best).

City ended a seven-game winless streak with victory over Nottingham Forest in the Premier League, but followed that up with a 2-2 draw against Crystal Palace and this defeat in Turin as the doldrums don’t appear to be ending any time soon.

Sam Lee breaks down the talking points from the game in Italy.

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Where is the city?

Who would have thought City would retain a place in the top 24 of this expanded Champions League?

The new format has already made their season even more difficult, as in the old six-game group stage they were often guaranteed a top spot before the final and were able to rest players for Premier League games.

This time they were unable to make those changes due to the new format, their difficulties and lack of available players, which will likely have a domino effect over the weekend.

Their defeat in Turin also means they need to get at least one win against Paris Saint-Germain (one point behind City) and Club Brugge (two points ahead of City) in January to secure a place in the top 24, which means a home-and-away play-off in February and an even longer season than most expected.

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Guardiola said before the game that he had recently made a change in goal just to keep things fresh, and given the relatively few opportunities to do that among the outfield players, you can see why that’s appealing.

However, it was a surprise that Ederson missed City’s game at Anfield and Stefan Ortega kept his place for the following two games, but the Brazilian was back in goal here.

He had some uncertain moments and was somewhat unlucky with Juve’s first goal; It seemed like he reacted well, but the ball squeezed over the line.

However, the parade before that was pushed back into the middle of the penalty area, barely away from the danger.

As Guardiola always says, Ederson was an integral part of City’s success, but Ortega was also always very good when given a chance. It will be interesting to see who is back in the starting line-up for the Manchester derby on Sunday.

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Was De Bruyne only positive for City?

At the moment it’s obviously a cautious City side, lacking confidence and hamstrung by injuries and the obvious fatigue of those who are fit.

The way they came to life after Juve’s opener suggested Guardiola’s men had more energy in the tank than their steady first-half approach suggested – perhaps saving some of it for Sunday’s derby up, and given the lack of options in the squad at the moment, that would be understandable.

The man at the center of their best moments on Wednesday was, unsurprisingly, Kevin De Bruyne, who set up Erling Haaland superbly in the first half and performed well again for Gündogan after half-time.

City are currently unable to control games as they usually do and so individual actions are becoming increasingly important – unfortunately for City they were unable to capitalize on the threat posed by De Bruyne.

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What did Pep Guardiola say?

We will let you know after he speaks at the post-match press conference.

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What’s next for Manchester City?

Sunday December 15th: Manchester United (H), Premier League, 4:30 p.m. GMT, 11:30 a.m. ET

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(Top photo: ISABELLA BONOTTO/AFP via Getty Images)