. Fail to win here and ignominy belonged to them, a Champions League exit at the first hurdle. The longest league table in football history would not lie. And yet Pep Guardiola’s team waited for one all the same, sleepwalking towards disaster.
When the half-time whistle went, they had been second best to Club Brugge and they trailed to Raphael Onyedika’s well-taken goal on 45 minutes. It was not just City’s accountants who shifted uncomfortably. The club’s sporting pride, their reputation, was on the line.
Relief was the overriding emotion when City actually turned up for the second half. On this evidence and plenty more since the end of October, a repeat of the 2023 triumph in this competition is a long way away. They were simply happy to progress into the playoff round.
They just seemed to mean it more after half-time and once Mateo Kovacic had equalised and Josko Gvardiol forced Joel Ordóñez into an own goal, it felt like a done deal. Savinho, on as a substitute to good effect, would add the third. City live to fight another day.
Guardiola’s attitude had been that clubs must play do-or-die ties at some point in the competition and if this one for City was earlier than anybody could have envisaged, then OK. His starting XI was loaded with big-game knowhow. They would be fine. Wouldn’t they?
Brugge brought an imposing record to town, their previous defeat having come at Milan on 22 October. Since then, it had been 15 wins and five draws in all competitions. They knew that they needed a point to make sure of their own progress but it was City who felt the burn of the spotlight.
Guardiola’s team had to manage the occasion, the nerves of the home crowd, which were unmistakably there. The City fans were so quiet in the early exchanges, plainly underwhelmed by the pre-match show, and they remained that way throughout the first half, their team …
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