Manchester City made it clear before a ball had been kicked that even if they couldn't take a lead to Madrid next week, it would not be for want of trying. There may be less of a home advantage now in the Champions League with the away goals rule scrapped, yet everyone inside and outside the Etihad threw everything at breaking through the Atletico barricades.
Pep Guardiola has called before for supporters to show they want the team to go far in this competition, accepting their booing of the anthem while encouraging them to put every other ounce of energy into encouraging the team. The City boss will have been one of many on the team bus on the way into the stadium to see the blue smoke and hear the songs from fans near Mary Ds welcoming the players onto the ground.
City needed every spark they could get against an Atletico team that dug their trench near their penalty box and furiously defended it with everything they had from the outset. Any space wider than the area was conceded, but finding space between the 10 red-and-white shirts positioned next to the goal was a particularly fiendish game of threading the needle.
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Denied the opportunity to play 12, Guardiola's initial solution was to confuse the Atletico lines with not one false nine but three; Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva all flooded the box at various points as Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling prowled the wings. It has worked against others, but they have not been quite so skilled or stubborn in refusing to be tempted out of (an incredibly deep) shape.
City needed any help they could get - and they got it. As soon as the game began, the South Stand were leading the whistles whenever Jan Oblak tried to slow the game down at Diego Simeone's instructions. Even if the referee didn't immediately take action, he was instantly made aware of it.
The ballboys were also alert, sprinting into action whenever one came their way to rapidly get the ball restarted. Guardiola was conducting them whenever he wasn't urging his team to keep their rhythm and intensity up. For all the patience the players needed on the pitch, they also couldn't allow themselves to be sucked into the sluggish pace that the visitors were happy to soak up.
After 70 minutes, the breakthrough arrived courtesy of world-class quality from Phil Foden just 80 seconds after coming onto the pitch. The skill to draw four Atletico players in was brilliant and the ball to put it on a plate for De Bruyne was even better.
As the team basked in a crucial advantage for the second leg, Guardiola could take immense pleasure from the collective effort that everyone had put into making it happen.
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