Fifty -nine minutes passed, this particular watch began to mark a moment before Omar Marmous launched Manchester City on his cheerful path.
Fifty -nine minutes in which City tried with Newcastle, by scoring its first three of four and then administering the game in a way that had felt consigned to the story.
Fifty-nine minutes disappeared without Nico González once he lost possession in a debut in the Premier League that ended with Pep Guardiola describing him as a mini-rodri.
Not a single street pass in almost an hour, from the 18th minute, the intermediate time of a city in the afternoon could advise, exactly one every 60 seconds. Back, sideways, drilling the final third without entering it. All at your own pace. Never haste, nervous or breaking sweat.
González had the ball for 10 percent of the entire game, one that will be remembered by Marmoush's hat-trick, but also belonged to a Spaniard that the city wanted to sign for the first time nine years ago. He tried two long passes throughout the game and never tried to hit Erling Haaland.
His touches hit 112, totaling 27 more than the second place of Ilkay Guondogan.
Nico González compared with a mini-rodri after his striking debut in the Premier League
Pep Guardiola lit Lyrical on the midfielder of £ 50 million after Manchester City beat Newcastle
Omar MarmousH scored a hat-trick for the city, but the game also belonged to González
Short, sharp, without disorder. This was control, it was safe, unusual for a new Guardiola firm, so many of whom need 12 months to acclimatize instead of a quarter of a FA cup tie in Leyton Orient, and maybe even more for start giving tactical direction to Haaland. It was duck meeting water.
Guardiola said that a few days ago the city is in its most vulnerable form in possession these days, which was a surprisingly frank admission of someone who prefers to defend with the ball instead of without them.
But it is obvious and something that the city manager cannot avoid that his errors in the presentation of opportunities to the opponents have not been positional. They have literally been wrapped in gifts, delivered with an arc, as evidenced by last Tuesday when Real Madrid helped a late family drama. Here, take the ball. No, you continue.
Putting González in that team last week definitely does not alter the general result, but it does offer more protection in the transition. It gives a defensive poor city an additional layer of hope.
The heavy blow he had shot down in Orient meant that he did not play any role, the excellent John Stones required in the center of the field with a tired par of Kevin by Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. City had more of the ball but never felt that this area of its launch was really his.
There can be no conceivable reason for the 23 -year -old not to begin at Bernabéu on Wednesday, so it is impossible. Impossible, unlikely, whatever, and although Guardiola will not think about how it looks next season at this time, González there in Real can give some vision of how they could arise as a team of their lower performance in years.
Only one game and Newcastle were poor, they never threatened to rest.
However, the 59 minutes do not lie. The century of complete passes do not lie, a statistics provider indicating 100, another 98. In any case, they are good numbers. The way González, of £ 50 million of Porto, used his frame to relieve Joe Willock and Tino Livramento out of the counters (arms in an unnatural way, the elbows in a slightly heartbreaking rodri style, do not lie.
Never hurried, nervous or breaking sweat, González had the ball for 10 percent of the game
He used his frame to cancel counters and his century of complete passes does not lie
There can be no conceivable reason not to begin in the section back against Real Madrid
The sample size is small, but however it is encouraging. He is the first player of the city in the whole season in trying 100 passes, 10 or more of which the final third with a precision over 95 percent reached successfully. Worst beginnings have existed.
And that should offer emotion, wondering how the center of the field is seen once Rodri returns, since González can operate later.
The attack trends come from his father, the former teammate of Guardiola, Fran, a worship end that spent his entire career in Deportivo La Coruna.
A man who scored the crucial winning goal against AC Milan to take the lovely sports team of 2004, one, including Diego Tristan and Juan Carlos Valeron, in a semifinal of the Champions League unlikely and romantic. Unfortunately for Fran, José Mourinho lay waiting with a fairy tale in Porto.
Mourinho and Porto: It is curious how football links things like that.
González, a product of the Masia in Barcelona and whom Guardiola knew when training at Bayern Munuch, was just a small child and almost joined the city at age 14 when Fran was training those under 18. There were discussions later in the development of the young man too. “But we had Fernandinho and Rodri,” Guardiola said.
Now they are González and Rodri. Well, not now, but very soon.