MANCHESTER City snuck through to the play-off phase of the Champions League after coming from behind to beat Club Brugge 3-1 and finish 22nd of the 24 qualified teams to secure progress.
With only three wins from eight games, they face Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in February’s play-offs – the price to pay for such a flawed campaign.
City’s night had started in worrying fashion when a merchandise kiosk outside the stadium caught fire and it took a stirring second-half revival to ensure their European hopes were not also up in flames.
Pep Guardiola called for “something special” ahead of the game and what he got – in the first half at least – was something quite shocking as City failed to muster any drive, intensity or shots on target before getting stung on the break by Raphael Onyedika.
City knew ahead of time – having surrendered a 2-0 lead at PSG to lose 4-2 last week – that anything other than a win would consign them to an early exit from the competition they won just 18 months ago, but even that could not summon the urgency necessary to hurt Brugge.
Luckily for Guardiola, all that changed after the break when Savinho came on, providing more direct threat and creating gaps, allowing Mateo Kovacic to drive through the heart of midfield and sweep home the leveller.
Everything became a bit more straightforward thereafter as Josko Gvardiol forced young defender Joel Ordonez to turn through his own net before Savinho scored a well-worked third to ease any lingering nerves with 13 minutes to go.
Manchester City were staring down the barrel until Savinho’s half-time introduction.
It made you wonder what he was doing sat on the bench in the first place, brought on to replace a laboured Ilkay Gundogan.
Savinho has now been directly involved in five goals in his last six appearances in all competitions.
Often we credit managers for making substitutions that have game-changing impact but on this occasion it feels slightly undue.
Pep Guardiola’s starting selection simply did not work.
He went for experience over vibrancy.
“The first half we missed the spark, Savinho helped us find it,” Guardiola reflected post match.
Stumbling over the finish line probably isn’t the best way to strike fear into upcoming play-off opponents – Real or Bayern – but important City are there nonetheless.
Relief will surely be replaced by dread as that date nears.
“When I saw the fire before the game I thought the journalists have their headlines already, that’s for sure. We were out but now we go forward.
“Brugge defend so tight, they go man to man, we need the quality and the spark to make the right action to score – maybe we felt the pressure. In the right moments we got the goals and the new format has been really tough, really difficult.
“In the future important teams might live what we have this season. It’s an incredible lesson for the club, for me firstly, and for the players – nothing is for granted.”
Asked if Man City can still be considered contenders to win this year’s Champions League: “Right now, no. I’m so pragmatic, the reality is the reality.
“These teams [Bayern and Real] have more experience than us, if we had to play tomorrow it would be difficult, but in two weeks I don’t know the position we will be. We are going to prepare well and try it, we’ll see what happens.”
Said Club Brugge head coach Nicky Hayen: “Really proud of the way we performed during the group phase. First half we were really disciplined tonight, we kept everything compact. We knew there were possibilities on the back of their defenders and we executed really well.
“Second half we started to make small mistakes and City are world class, they punish you immediately. We try to push every day, we try to have a plan and they executed in the most perfect way.
“We are quite happy, we are ambitious and now we can go in the next round in an open way.” – Sky Sports.
