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17 hours ago
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Manchester City ought not to have needed a wake-up call given the situation they were in, not to mention the stakes. 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 predictable and laboured. The travelling Brugge supporters cut through the silence. They were determined to make themselves heard – it was not hard – and they were in dreamland by the interval.
It would have been enough for them to have seen their team keep City at arm’s length so calmly. Which they did. But it got better when they stormed forward on the counterattack to set up the unthinkable. The crazy thing was that it was not a total surprise because City looked inhibited and Brugge had advertised their ability to make inroads up the left. A little bit before the breakthrough, Christos Tzolis had seen a shot blocked by Manuel Ajanki.
Guardiola had persisted with Matheus Nunes at right-back and he was beaten so easily by Ferran Jutglà; a simple stop-and-go move and a shake of the hips all it took. Brugge had broken initially through their captain, Hans Vanaken, and when Jutglà crossed low with City stretched, Onyedika applied the firm first-time finish.
The City manager had called for no emotion, collective coolness, but his team were flat in the first half. The tempo was slow, the movements predictable; a lot of side-to-side stuff, few searching passes.
Brugge were always going to make things difficult, to be as compact as possible without the ball. But it was clear from the early running that they could ask questions on the break, Tzolis enjoying plenty of space on the left. There had been a tone-setting moment at the outset when Akanji and Nunes went for the same aerial ball and missed it. When Tzolis hared away to cross, Gvardiol blocked to keep out Chemsdine Talbi.
City offered little before the interval. Ilkay Gündogan had the ball in the net but he was a yard offside. Erling Haaland headed square to nobody rather than aim at goal. Kevin De Bruyne lashed one high.
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City needed to bring greater energy upon the restart and they did. Guardiola tweaked his approach, introducing Savinho for Gündogan – in other words, a bit more pace – and City were quickly level.
John Stones had missed a gilt-edged header and Phil Foden had curled off target when Kovacic picked up the ball on halfway, dribbled up the middle and kept on going. Brugge’s collective sin was to back off. When Kovacic reached the edge of the area, he threaded a low shot into the bottom corner.
If that was a soft concession, then worse was to come for Brugge. They had threatened at the other end, continuing to get runners in, not least when Tzolis ran through, ignoring offside cries and Vanaken was thwarted by Ederson. The flag did eventually go up but it looked incorrect. Guardiola was booked for a rant.
Tzolis was all action. Twice he went close and yet City were in front when Savinho played in Gvardiol and his low cross was diverted into his own net by Ordóñez.
Guardiola was a snapshot in anguish when Haaland was denied by Simon Mignolet and Brandon Mechele cleared Savinho’s rebound from in front of the line. He could exhale when Savinho took a touch on his chest following Stones’s diagonal pass to beat Mignolet at the near post.
