For 2022/23 UCL winners Manchester City, coming into Matchday 8 needing to win to have any chance at all of progressing to the knockouts seemed incomprehensible.
But that’s the position they found themselves in here, and they almost got off to the worst possible start when a defensive mix-up allowed Christos Tzolis a clear sighting of goal he failed to take advantage of.
Even in the first half there was a growing sense of desperation from City, which wasn’t helped when İlkay Gündogan put the ball in the net, only for the offside flag to cut short his celebrations.
Pep Guardiola himself cut a frustrated figure as he spent most of the half pacing between the edge of his technical area and his seat in the dugout.
His side’s evident lack of creativity was undoubtedly behind that, and his mood won’t have been helped when Brugge took the lead on the stroke of half-time. Raphael Onyedika ghosted in at the back post to slam home an opener just before the break, which left City with a mountain to climb in the second half to keep their UCL campaign alive.
The hosts needed some divine intervention to get back into the game and Mateo Kovacic provided it soon after the restart, striding forward from the halfway line up to the edge of the area before caressing an effort into the corner.
That proved to be the incentive City needed, and they completed the turnaround just after the hour mark when Josko Gvardiol’s cross was turned into his own net by Joel Ordonez.
The game ought to have been out of sight 15 minutes from time, but a stunning sequence of events saw Erling Haaland miss a one-on-one before Savinho’s goal-bound follow-up was cleared off the line by Brandon Mechele.
The Brazilian winger wasn’t deterred though, ghosting in around the far post to latch onto John Stones’ perfectly weighted pass before slamming home at the near post past Simon Mignolet.
Fortunately for Brugge, they were in the 24th and final knockout spot going into the dying moments, knowing that a minor miracle would have to occur to knock them out, so they were content to sit in and be hard to beat, while City just knocked the ball about knowing they were also through. As such, the closing stages were something of a non-event as both sides’ fate was secured.