Manchester City qualified for the semi-finals of the Champions League after playing out a 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich on Wednesday.
Erling Haaland’s second-half strike was cancelled out by a Joshua Kimmich penalty, but City progressed 4-1 on aggregate after winning 3-0 in the first leg last week.
Pep Guardiola’s side have reached the final four of the competition in three successive seasons, and like last season will go head-to-head with Real Madrid for a place in the final.
It wasn’t a vintage City performance, but here are four things we learned from a job well done in Munich.
Human after all
It appears that rather than being a footballing version of the Terminator, a cyborg sent to earth to dominate football, he is in fact human after all.
Before Wednesday night Haaland had never missed a penalty in the Champions League, and had scored all six of the spot-kicks he’d taken for City.
All good things must come to an end though, skying his effort late in the first half after Dayot Upamecano was penalised for handball.
Now that he’s missed a penalty, Haaland’s City initiation is complete.
Dogged defending
City have spent much of the last few seasons defending by simply keeping hold of the ball, but against Bayern last week they showed they have the grit to withstand periods of pressure.
Guardiola’s side had to do even more at the Allianz Arena, and did so admirably. Ruben Dias, Nathan Ake all made important interventions, while Ederson made some clutch saves.
It wasn’t easy, and it certainly wasn’t comfortable for supporters to watch, but City showed they can go away to European giants and stand firm.
The missing part of City’s game
Over the last couple of years, Guardiola has repeatedly insisted that his side cannot play through transitions, or they cannot do so against elite sides in the Champions League.
On recent evidence though, City can – and are in fact very good at – attacking teams through transitions. They’ve done it a few times this season, and Haaland’s goal was just the latest example.
There were 14 seconds between John Stones bringing the ball off his own goal line and Haaland scoring, as pointed out on Twitter by Sam Lee.
City won back-to-back Premier League titles in 2020/21 and 2021/22 and went extremely close in Europe, but in big European games when they couldn’t get control they looked vulnerable.
Now, when games are a little out of control, they can take full advantage.
City have a mean streak
After City pulled off a 4-2 comeback win against Tottenham back in January, Guardiola criticised his players for not having enough passion.
He cited the failure of his players to back-up young teammate Rico Lewis after the 18-year-old was fouled.
That’s certainly not a problem now. City were riled up straight from kick-off, with even the usually unflappable Ilkay Gundogan sticking up for himself and his teammates on a number of occasions.
In terms of (relative) adversity, unity and camaraderie are vital. City have both in spades.
