Man City celebrations after Club Brugge speak volumes on big Champions League night

Out of the frying pan and into the fires of Madrid or Munich for Manchester City after squeezing their way into the Champions League play-offs.

A merchandise kiosk setting ablaze outside the Etihad on Wednesday evening was a little on the nose as the Blues arrived trying to avoid their season going up in flames. When they actually arrived though was up for debate.

With UEFA running a live page online updating the play-off and last-16 permutations as every goal went in, everything was quiet in east Manchester. Club Brugge sat back and a nervous host never got going in the first half.

Pep Guardiola had his head in his hands as early as the third minute when Matheus Nunes and Manu Akanji both went for the same ball and were beaten in the air to allow Christos Tzolis to run half the length of the pitch into the box before wasting the golden opportunity. That should have woken City up, but Kevin De Bruyne and Phil Foden were firmly off with their radar and nobody else looked like doing anything.

Literally in the case of Nunes, who was sold the slowest stepover of the season by Ferran Jutgla on the edge of half-time as a bad half became far worse. The ball went square across the box to Raphael Onyedika and his shot went through Ederson to put the Belgian side ahead.

In many ways, it summed up how badly wrong the season has gone: a fringe player who hasn't shown the midfield quality he was signed for, out of position because the club captain has run away from his troubles and - not for the first time - out of his depth. And not even against good opposition either; nor were Sporting, or Juve, or Feyenoord.

As they returned for the second half, with Savinho on for Ilkay Gundogan, City were staring at the biggest embarrassment in nine years under Guardiola and they had nobody to blame but themselves. Fortunately for them, they had 45 minutes to rescue the situation.

Savinho instantly won two corners, but when John Stones headed the second of those wide from five yards the ghosts of Champions League past - Lyon, Chelsea, Spurs and Monaco - grew closer. Step forward Mateo Kovacic though, who picked up the ball in the centre-circle and ran. And ran. And ran, right up to the edge of the box where he sidefooted in an equaliser.

That should have kicked City on and they ran back to their own half to quickly restart the game, only for Tzolis and Club Brugge to nearly put them behind again. The Etihad felt alive again but it was the visitors who were pushing for a second.

Following the wild nature of City's season, it was the Blues who went 2-1 up on the hour mark. A smart ball from Savinho played Josko Gvardiol through and the left-back's cross was turned into his own net by Joel Ordonez.

With 15 minutes to go, Savinho brilliantly controlled a Stones ball in the box and smashed it through Simon Mignolet to make the game safe. Having been lectured on the pitch at Brentford, hooked at half-time in Paris and then dropped for the Chelsea game, this was some reaction from the 20-year-old.

Even then, there were a few nerves owing to the Feyenood collapse but with Brugge content with a result that confirmed their own place in the play-offs it was an unusually easy end to the game for City. The subdued celebrations from everyone at the end made it clear that City are crawling rather than bouncing into the next round.

The Blues have made unbelievably hard work of qualifying and now face a draw that UEFA could not have dreamed of when they tried to sell their new format. To make the last-16, they must beat either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.

Guardiola's side saw both off on the way to the Treble in 2023, and it should be remembered they were really not in good form at this stage of that season with the club in 'happy flowers' mode. Everything came together back then from nowhere - right now, City are still in the nowhere phase.

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