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 were second best to Club Brugge and behind to Raphael Onyedika’s well-taken goal on 45 minutes. It was not just City’s accountants that shifted uncomfortably. Everything was on the line for everybody – Guardiola, the players, the fans. It was sporting pride, reputations, the lot.
Relief was the overriding emotion when City turned up for the second half. On the evidence of this and plenty of other performances since the end of October, a repeat of the landmark 2023 triumph is a long way away. There are just too many imperfections about City at present, too many key players below their best. All that mattered, though, was progress into the playoff round.
City just seemed to mean it more after half-time. There was greater energy, the home support also roused themselves and once in front, Josko Gvardiol forcing Joel Ordóñez into an own goal, it felt like a done deal.
Brugge had refused to fold after Mateo Kovacic’s equaliser and there was the moment when Guardiola lost his cool at the officials to incur a booking. He had argued for an offside against Brugge that did eventually come, although it looked like an incorrect call.
The Champions League's inaugural 'league phase' is now complete, with the top eight sides – Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter, Atlético, Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa – going straight to the last 16. The teams who finished between 9th and 24th have been matched in seeded and unseeded pairs, to be allocated into playoff ties in Friday's draw (11am GMT).
To give an example, Celtic (21st) and Manchester City (22nd) will face Real Madrid (11th) or Bayern Munich (12th), with the winners advancing to play either Atlético (seeded fifth) or Leverkusen (6th). So the draw could potentially put Celtic v Real Madrid on one side, and Manchester City v Bayern on the other.
The playoffs will take place on 11-12 and 18-19 February, before a further draw on 21 February decides who the playoff winners will face in the last 16. So, if Real Madrid and Bayern Munich advance, they will be drawn to play either Atlético or Leverkusen. Teams from the same country can be paired together at any point.
Playoff ties and last-16 opponents
(17) Monaco or (18) Brest v (15) PSG or (16) Benfica
- Winner will face (1) Liverpool or (2) Barcelona in last 16
(23) Sporting or (24) Brugge v (9) Atalanta or (10) Dortmund
- Winner will face (7) Lille or (8) Aston Villa in last 16
(21) Celtic or (22) Man City v (11) Real Madrid or (12) Bayern
- Winner will face (5) Atlético or (6) Leverkusen in last 16
(19) Feyenoord or (20) Juventus v (13) Milan or (14) PSV
- Winner will face (3) Arsenal or (4) Inter in last 16
(18) Brest or (17) Monaco v (16) Benfica or (15) PSG
- Winner will face (2) Barcelona or (1) Liverpool in last 16
(24) Brugge or Sporting (23) v (10) Dortmund or (9) Atalanta
- Winner will face (8) Aston Villa or (7) Lille in last 16
(22) Man City or (21) Celtic v (12) Bayern or (11) Real Madrid
- Winner will face (6) Leverkusen or (5) Atlético in last 16
(20) Juventus or (19) Feyenoord v (14) PSV or (13) Milan
- Winner will face (4) Inter or Arsenal (3) in last 16
Guardiola could relax a little bit after the own goal, the home crowd could revert to merely taking it all in and even though Brugge did not allow their heads to drop, it was over when Savinho, who made the difference as a half-time substitute, added the third.
City’s reward was dubious – a tie against Real Madrid or Bayern Munich – but that is the price to pay for a flawed campaign. The losses at Sporting and Juventus hurt, ditto the one at Paris Saint-Germain last Wednesday, but the real killer was surely the three-goal surrender for 3-3 at home to Feyenoord.
The hard-to-ignore subplot here was the home fans. They were so quiet in the early exchanges, plainly underwhelmed by the pre-match show, and they remained that way throughout the first half. Those that had travelled from Brugge cut through the silence. They were determined to make themselves heard – it was not hard – and they were in dreamland by the interval.
They were happy at how their team had kept City at arm’s length. But it got even better when they moved forward on the counterattack to set up the unthinkable. It was not a surprise because if City looked laboured, Brugge had advertised their ability to make inroads up the left. Before the breakthrough, the all-action Christos Tzolis had seen a shot blocked by Manuel Ajanki.
Guardiola 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, Onyedika applied the first-time finish.
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 counter, Tzolis enjoying plenty of space on the left. There was a 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. The tempo was slow, the movements predictable; a lot of side-to-side stuff, few searching passes.
Guardiola tweaked his approach for the second half, introducing Savinho for Gündogan – in other words, a bit more pace – and City were soon level. John Stones had missed a gilt-edged header when Kovacic picked up the ball on halfway, dribbled up the middle and kept 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 surged through, ignoring the offside cries and Vanaken was thwarted by Ederson. That was when Guardiola talked his way to the yellow card. Twice more Tzolis went close but City were in front when Savinho played in Gvardiol and his low cross led to Ordóñez’s misfortune.
Guardiola was a snapshot in anguish when Haaland was denied by Simon Mignolet and Brandon Mechele cleared Savinho’s rebound off the line. The manager could exhale when Savinho took a touch on his chest following Stones’s diagonal pass to crash his shot inside the near post.
| Pos | Team | P | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Liverpool | 8 | 12 | 21 |
| 2 | Barcelona | 8 | 15 | 19 |
| 3 | Arsenal | 8 | 13 | 19 |
| 4 | Inter Milan | 8 | 10 | 19 |
| 5 | Atletico Madrid | 8 | 8 | 18 |
| 6 | Bayer Leverkusen | 8 | 8 | 16 |
| 7 | Lille | 8 | 7 | 16 |
| 8 | Aston Villa | 8 | 7 | 16 |
| 9 | Atalanta | 8 | 14 | 15 |
| 10 | Borussia Dortmund | 8 | 10 | 15 |
| 11 | Real Madrid | 8 | 8 | 15 |
| 12 | Bayern Munich | 8 | 8 | 15 |
| 13 | AC Milan | 8 | 3 | 15 |
| 14 | PSV | 8 | 4 | 14 |
| 15 | PSG | 8 | 5 | 13 |
| 16 | Benfica | 8 | 4 | 13 |
| 17 | Monaco | 8 | 0 | 13 |
| 18 | Brest | 8 | -1 | 13 |
| 19 | Feyenoord | 8 | -3 | 13 |
| 20 | Juventus | 8 | 2 | 12 |
| 21 | Celtic | 8 | -1 | 12 |
| 22 | Man City | 8 | 4 | 11 |
| 23 | Sporting | 8 | 1 | 11 |
| 24 | Club Brugge | 8 | -4 | 11 |
| 25 | Dinamo Zagreb | 8 | -7 | 11 |
| 26 | Stuttgart | 8 | -4 | 10 |
| 27 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 8 | -8 | 7 |
| 28 | Bologna | 8 | -5 | 6 |
| 29 | Red Star Belgrade | 8 | -9 | 6 |
| 30 | Sturm Graz | 8 | -9 | 6 |
| 31 | Sparta Prague | 8 | -14 | 4 |
| 32 | RB Leipzig | 8 | -7 | 3 |
| 33 | Girona | 8 | -8 | 3 |
| 34 | Red Bull Salzburg | 8 | -22 | 3 |
| 35 | Slovan Bratislava | 8 | -20 | 0 |
| 36 | Young Boys | 8 | -21 | 0 |
