I stumbled across this question in 'Intermediate Language Practice' by Michael Vince: 'Even though they were losing at half-time, City won in the end. Despite________________________________'
The answer given is 'Despite losing at half-time, City won in the end.'
For me, the answer doesn't work. Something like 'Despite being behind at half-time...' would be better.
However, I am having trouble explaining why it doesn't work. Is it because the tenses for 'lose' and 'win' do not agree in the original 'even though' sentence so there is ambiguity when you try and reduce 'were losing' to 'losing' because the 'won in the end' makes us read the subordinate clause as 'they lost'?