The night began with Manchester City on fire. A fire wrapped a quarry of merchandise outside the Etihad. He became rapidly extinguished and no one was injured, but felt like a bad omen.
There have been moments in this season in which it has felt as if the team that has dominated English football during the last four years was consumed in conflagration.
All the old certainties have flown and when City was a goal to an excellent strike by Raphael Onyedika of Club Brugge a minute before part time, he felt as if the unthinkable was about to happen and that the team won the Champions League El Season Before Last could now be eliminated in the first stage.
That would have been the first time that Pep Guardiola had not failed to take out a team from the group's group stage in his career with a garland.
“Thank you for your concern,” journalists had told journalists before the game.
“I know how worried you are if we are out.”
We do not need to have worried. Guardiola does not need to have worried.
He made a change in part time, brought Savinho for Ilkay Gundagan and saw Savinho, who scored the third in this 3-1 victory, changed the game and relieved them from the 25 position they had occupied, one outside the qualification zone, in the play-off places.
Guardiola brought Savinho to Guondogan at halft while and in two minutes, City should have matched. From Bruyne he swayed on a beautiful cross and when John Stones got up to meet six yards, looked like the prelude to a goal. The stones headed for par.
The city equalizer came from the most unlikely source. Mateo Kovacic picked up the ball a few feet within the middle of the city and began to advance. No one came to challenge him to keep Kovacic running. And running. When he reached the edge of the area, he dragged his shot through Mignolet and towards the lower corner. A roar or relief sounded around the Etihad.
But the night of fear was not over yet. Tzolis beat the trap from outside the city and then involved in a wrestling fight with Josko Gvardiol before the opportunity disappeared. Guardiola, who was convinced that there had been a handball of witches in melee combat, was reserved for his protests.
Tzolis was playing magnificently for witches. City could not deal with him and entered Manuel Akanji and whistled a shot. Although the city was level, they were still vulnerable.
They took the lead after an hour. Bernardo Silva slid a ball inside the witch's back so that Gvardiol ran and drove a poisonous ball through the goal. Joel Ordonez tried to intercept him, but only managed to turn him into his own goal.
On the band line, entertainment continued. Guardiola was so overwhelmed by the joy and relief that led him to an orange box full of energy drinks. He kicked him once, and then again with a real feeling.
City almost put the game out of the reach of 17 minutes from the moment Haaland won the ball on the edge of the witch box and brought a brilliant salvation of a hand out of Mignolet. The rebound fell to Savinho and his shot was heading before Brandon Mechele clear him.
Savinho compensated the lady shortly after when she took a diagonal ball in her chest while running towards the area and then shot Mignolet. The alarm was over. Those flames had been sprayed.