Man City 3 Club Brugge 1: Hosts scrape through in Champions League but set up horror clash against giants

THEY were putting out fires inside and outside the Etihad last night. 

First, a merchandise stall on the stadium’s perimeter burst into flames. 

Then, Pep Guardiola’s men appeared to be torching their European hopes before rescuing themselves from the humiliation of a group-stage Champions League exit.

Guardiola had been fretting manically on the touchline as City trailed to a first-half strike from Raphael Onyedika.

The City boss was scratching his head, slipping in his technical area and being booked for screaming blue murder at the ref.

Yet he got his half-time substitution bang on. Savinho arrived in place of Ilkay Gundogan and the Brazilian winger scored the killer third after helping to set up the second, an own goal.

City will now face either Jude Bellingham and Real Madrid, or Harry Kane’s Bayern Munich, in a glamorous two-legged play-off tie to be decided tomorrow.

They will be played next month with the winners heading through to the last 16.

Heaven knows how City ended up in this situation — needing a comeback win over Club Brugge in order to finish in the top 24 and scrape into the play-off round.

The new Champions League format makes it nigh-on impossible for Europe’s grandest clubs to fall at the first hurdle. But the 2023 champions flirted with the unthinkable after a run of just one point from their previous four matches in the competition.

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And at half-time it looked even worse, only for Mateo Kovacic to conjure a solo equaliser which launched City’s jailbreak.

This has been a torturous group stage for Guardiola and it showed on the Catalan’s face on a night of high anxiety.

While City’s domestic form had turned a corner, last week’s extraordinary capitulation at Paris Saint-Germain left them in this tight corner.

City have reached the knockout round in every season under their Spanish gaffer but here they were facing a win-or-bust scenario.

Still, they remain unbeaten at home in Europe for seven years and, despite their first-half travails, they live to fight another day.

The fire brigade had been called out two hours before kick-off when a club-shop kiosk caught ablaze just as City were about to parade their January signings on a nearby stage.

Those new boys weren’t eligible for this match, leaving an inexperienced City bench.

John Stones and Kevin De Bruyne returned to the starting line-up after missing out for the 3-1 Premier League win over Chelsea.

For Stones it was a first start of 2025 and he was Beckenbauering about, frequently popping up in advanced midfield positions.

Still, Brugge threatened first when Matheus Nunes allowed a long ball to sail over his head, leaving Christos Tzolis bearing down on goal, yet the Greek forward took a bad touch and danger was averted.

City were bossing possession, naturally, but it was edgy stuff, hot-potato passing.

Phil Foden — playing on the left despite having moaned about playing on that flank — flashed a shot wide.

Gundogan steered a shot home, only to have been spotted offside.

Erling Haaland tried to nod across the area when he ought to have gone for goal, then the Norwegian released De Bruyne who blazed over when the De Bruyne of old would have slotted home.

When Guardiola slipped and fell while trying to retrieve a ball from the technical area, it summed up City’s collective lack of cool.

The Belgian side had been well organised in defence, threatening occasionally on the break without picking the correct final pass.

That was until the 44th minute, when Ferran Jutgla kippered the struggling Nunes down the left and squared for Onyedika to thump past Ederson.

The Etihad was stunned into silence, save for the band of Brugge fans who descended into rapture and enquired of City, in perfect English, ‘Who the f***ing hell are you?’

Guardiola responded with positivity by sending on Savinho and City were straight at it — Stones heading narrowly wide before the equaliser arrived. This was all about Kovacic. The Croat picked up possession on the halfway line and motored to the edge of the box before he steered his shot through the legs of a defender and past Simon Mignolet, who ought to have done better.

There were hairy moments before City took the lead.

Guardiola was booked for charging down the touchline to remonstrate after the referee played an advantage and City squandered it.

Then Tzolis saw one shot saved by Ederson and fired another just past the post.

But after De Bruyne dragged a close-range effort horribly wide, City seized the lead.

Savinho played a sweet pass to release Josko Gvardiol, whose low centre was turned into his own net by Joel Ordonez.

Ederson made a smart stop to deny Chemsdine Talbi but the lively Savinho was instrumental as City settled it.

First the Brazilian had a shot cleared brilliantly off the line by the masked defender Brandon Mechele.

Then came the killer third courtesy of a cute diagonal pass from Stones.

Savinho chested down and drilled past Mignolet, who provided a weak hand and was beaten at his near post.

They could scarcely get any tougher play-off opponents than Real or Bayern but anything is better than going down in flames at the group stage.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk