For over 75 minutes at Atletico Madrid's Estadio Wanda Metropolitano, Manchester United were at the mercy of a supremely confident 22-year-old.
Manchester City's neighbours travelled to Spain for their Champions League round of 16 tie amid a particularly uninspiring run of form, their saving grace being that their opponents have had been even worse of late.
Yet in the first half of the 1-1 draw, there was only one team in it, Atletico - who had lost four of ten games since the turn of the year - inspired by a resurgent Joao Felix.
City fans will no doubt be familiar with the name. The Portuguese prodigy who burst onto the scene at Benfica aged just 18, Felix attracted the attentions of both City and Pep Guardiola for his flair, striking instincts, and all-round technical brilliance.
The meeting of Felix - an attacking all-rounder who is perfectly suited to playing as a false nine - and Guardiola seemed a matter of destiny, but it never came to be. In 2019 he joined Atletico for £113m, the poster boy for a new-look Diego Simeone side divorced from the defence-first stereotype that had lingered for almost a decade.
Yet things haven't gone as planned. Various injuries have punctuated Felix's two-and-a-half years in Madrid, but he's looked at odds with Simeone's system when he has been fit. After Atletico established a healthy lead at the top of La Liga early on in the 2020/21 campaign, Cholo abandoned his ideas of expansive attack. That did not suit Felix at all.
Felix has been shunted around the team, unable to build momentum in a role. He's been deployed in many positions when he's not on the bench, from a striker, a No. 10, a winger, and even at wing-back. Wherever he's played, Felix has been shackled by Atletico's rigidity and order, unable to express himself.
The goal he scored against United on Wednesday night showed just how good he could be. Standing on the edge of the box in anticipation of an early cross from deep, Felix showed his natural striker's instincts by darting across Harry Maguire from the defender's blindside and sending a diving bullet header past David de Gea. The seventh-minute opener - his first goal in the Champions League this season - sent a clear message: 'remember me?'.
Until Simeone inexplicably substituted the best player on the pitch in the 76th minute, Felix was at the heart of everything Atletico did. Moments after his withdrawal, United equalised, and without their young star, Atleti lacked the drive to swing back.
In the 25 matches that Felix has been involved in this season, the 22-year-old has lasted the full 90 minutes in just five. While that is partially down to injuries and the excellent form of teammate Angel Correa, it is clear that Simeone, 30 months on from Atletico smashing their record transfer fee, still does not trust Felix.
This brings us back to City. There is not another player in the world so obviously suited to Guardiola football which is not already at the club. He possesses the positional and tactical flexibility to play several different roles across the City front-line, and at 22-years-old, he is still malleable enough for Guardiola to mould him in any way he wants.
His work rate is second-to-none, a quality suited to Pep's desire to press after losing possession. As he showed against United, he excels in one area that City's current attackers do not; heading. Despite standing at 5'9", Felix has a great jump and a powerful, accurate header.
It may be an uncomfortable truth, but City's attacking options are ageing. Riyad Mahrez and Ilkay Gundogan are now 31, while Kevin de Bruyne is 30. While they look to have plenty of elite football left in them, there is no reason why City shouldn't look to gradually bed-in long term replacements. That is what Liverpool are doing with Colombian winger Luis Diaz, with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane still Jurgen Klopp's preferred wide men.
With four years remaining on his current contract, it would take a hefty offer to persuade the reigning Spanish champions to sell Felix, but the potential of what he could do with Guardiola as his manager is mouth-watering. All the talk is of Erling Haaland, but the best fit for City's attack can be found in Madrid, not Dortmund.
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