Man City double defeat puts Blues at risk as Txiki Begiristain takes note and Man United watch on

Manchester City's humiliating defeat at Sporting may well have happened in the old Champions League format, but it has been heralded as an example of how great the shiny new League Phase is.

City's two-year unbeaten run in Europe ended as they crashed to a 4-1 battering in Portugal, making it three defeats in a row in all competitions and a first in four Champions League games this season. As things stand they face a play-off to get into the last-16 but have four games to put things right and three wins from matches against Feyenoord, Juventus, Club Brugge and PSG should be enough.

Down in the academy, Ben Wilkinson's under-19s don't have that luxury in the UEFA Youth League. They too were beaten by Sporting but unlike their senior counterparts, they only have two more fixtures to book a knockout spot.

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A 2-0 defeat at Sporting's training ground followed a 4-2 reverse against Inter on the opening match-week, sandwiching bigger wins over Slovan Bratislava and Sparta Prague. Six points from four games leaves the U19s 17th in the 36-team league that mirrors the Champions League format with one significant difference.

The top 22 sides qualify directly for the knockout stages, with the top six facing the bottom six. The middle 10 sides take on clubs from the 'Domestic Champions' path, sides who won or did well in their domestic leagues but weren't part of the Youth League phase due to their first team not being in the Champions League.

Among those clubs who have a final knockout tie to progress are Manchester United, setting up a potential Manchester derby if United beat AZ Alkmaar and City finish between 7th and 16th in the top tier, a scenario that would bear out as things stand.

Outgoing City Director of Football Txiki Begiristain was present at the Sporting defeat in the Youth League alonsgisde his successor Hugo Viana. Begiristain values the Youth League more than any other competition in comparing City's youngsters against top talents from other clubs.

"Txiki says it's the singular most beneficial tool to measure our elite talent against the best in Europe," former U21 coach Brian Barry-Murphy told MEN Sport last season. "It's the competition he watches above everyone else. To see how Oscar Bobb compares against the [Hajduk] Split guys in the last-16.

"We played PSG two seasons ago and Bobb was against Xavi Simons. Now look where he is now. You almost see these young players and think 'who's he?' Then two years later you go 'oh!'."

Begiristain and Viana will get a much firmer sense of what they are working with in the academy in these final two games. City could just as easily finish in the top six as they could not qualify at all, and they have 180 minutes to determine their own fate.

“I’ve got no doubt that on our day we’re capable of competing and going quite deep in the competition,” said head coach Wilkinson after the Sporting defeat. "I just think when we come against these top teams, we need to find a way to come out on top of the small margins which in the two games we’ve lost this season, we’ve lost those big moments."

All eyes will be on the academy to see if they can master those big moments when they inevitably come along in the next two European outings.