After a rare weekend without Premier League commitments, Manchester City return to action on Wednesday evening when they take on Borussia Dortmund in their second match of the Champions League group stage.
City got their European campaign off to the perfect start last week, recording a convincing 4-0 win against Sevilla in Spain. Tonight they'll be looking to build on that, but the evening also marks an important anniversary in the club's history.
11 years ago on 14th September, 2011, City played in the Champions League for the first time in their history. The Blues had qualified for the group stages for the first time thanks to a third placed finish in the Premier League the season before, and their reward was to be paired with Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal.
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Napoli were City's first ever Champions League opponents, with the two sides playing out a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium. The Italian visitors took the lead in the 69th minute when Edinson Cavani finished off a counter-attack, but Aleksandar Kolarov replied six minutes later with a sumptuous free-kick.
City ended the group stage with 10 points, but finished in third place and dropped into the Europa League. For many years that remained the highest points tally a team had amassed without progressing to the next stage.
Progressing to the knockouts is now something of a formality for City, but what happened to those pioneers that came so close?
Joe Hart
City struggled to live up to expectations in the Champions League following their debut campaign - a woeful group stage in 2012/13 was followed by round-of-16 exits in 2013/14 and 2014/15 - but Hart certainly wasn't to blame.
The England goalkeeper put in extraordinary performances against the likes of Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona, and almost single handedly kept the score down when City met Real Madrid in the 2015/16 semi-finals.
After going on a series of unsuccessful loan moves when Guardiola arrives at City, Hart is now back playing in the Champions League with Celtic.
Pablo Zabaleta
A City fan-favourite, Pablo Zabaleta remained a key first-team player until his powers began to wane in 2016. One of his most memorable City moments came in the Champions League - an goal scored at Roma's Stadio Olimpico to keep City's hopes of reaching the last-16 in 2014/15 alive.
He left City at the end of Guardiola's first season in charge, spending three years at West Ham before retiring in 2020. Zaba is now an ambassador for City and also works as a TV pundit.
Vincent Kompany
Vincent Kompany, Mr Manchester City, was a key figure in the sides of Roberto Mancini, Manuel Pellegrini and Guardiola, bowing out in 2019 in spectacular fashion.
His stunning strike against Leicester in May 2019 helped City on their way to winning a fourth Premier League title, and his last match for the Blues was the 6-0 thumping of Watford in the 2019 FA Cup final. Kompany has a statue outside the Etihad and is now the manager of Championship side Burnley.
Joleon Lescott
Joleon Lescott formed a brilliant centre-back partnership with Kompany that formed the basis of City's title-winning campaign, but he lost his starting place to Matija Nastasic in 2012/13 and Martin Demichelis in 2013/14. He left City in 2014 for West Brom, before spending time at Aston Villa, AEK Athens and Sunderland.
He retired in 2017 and is now a regular pundit on BT Sport.
Aleksandar Kolarov
As close as a footballer can get to being like Marmite, it's fair to say that there's never been a City player with as powerful a strike as Kolarov.
Like Zaba he left after Guardiola's first season, he resumed his tour of Italy be representing Roma and then Inter Milan. The Serbian retired this summer and began training to become a sporting director and a scout.
Gareth Barry
Perhaps one of City's most underrated players, Gareth Barry didn't last long at City after that famous 2011/12 season. The central midfielder left at the end of 2012/13 for a loan spell at Everton, where his stay was then made permanent.
He joined West Brom in 2017 and retired in 2020. He made 653 Premier League appearances, more than any other player.
Yaya Toure
One of City's best-ever big game players, Yaya Toure scored the goal in the 2011 FA Cup final that ended City's 35-year trophy drought. He was instrumental in City's title wins of 2012 and 2014, but fallings out with Guardiola and age brought and end to his City career in 2018.
He retired in 2020 and is now a coach at Tottenham Hotspur.
Samir Nasri
Perhaps one of the most frustrating players in modern City history, Nasri had the quality to be a City great but he was never really consistent enough.
The Frenchman spent the 2016/17 season on loan at Sevilla after Guardiola saw no place for him in his plans, and he left the club in 2017. Spells in Turkey, China and finally at West Ham yielded little success, resulting in his retirement in 2021.
David Silva
One of the greatest to ever wear the sky blue shirt, David Silva thrived throughout his 10-year spell in Manchester. El Mago could arguably have stayed on at City rather than leave in 2020, but he opted to pursue more regular minutes by continuing his career at Real Sociedad.
At the end of last season he signed a one-year contract extension to keep him in San Sebastian until the end of the current season.
Edin Dzeko
Another underappreciated striker, Dzeko was a far better player for City than many gave him credit for. The contrast between his laid-back approach and the all-action style of Sergio Aguero did him no favours, but 72 goals in 189 outings is not to be sniffed at.
He spent six years at Roma between 2015 and 2021, before following Kolarov to Inter Milan.
Sergio Aguero
No player can claim to be as important to the rise of City as Aguero. The scorer of so many goals - most notably the 2012 title winner - the Argentine is City's all-time leading scorer with 260 goals.
He left City in 2021 and joined Barcelona, only to tragically retire months later due to a heart condition. He has not ruled out a return to football, but for now he is a media pundit and online streamer.
Like Silva and Kompany he has a statue outside the Etihad Stadium, and rightly so.
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