Wednesday, May 4 2022 will permanently be etched into the minds of Manchester City supporters for all the wrong reasons.
For much of the Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid, the Blues looked to have completed the job. Riyad Mahrez's strike in the 73rd minute appeared to have put the game beyond reasonable doubt and would serve as an historic moment.
Missed chances over the course of the second leg looked set to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience until the worst happened. A wild period of stoppage time in the Spanish heat blew City's hopes of reaching the final and shocked the world.
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Rodrygo's brace turned the tide at the Bernabeu and City had few options on the pitch to change the game. Karim Benzema's penalty winner in extra time felt an almost inevitability as Real completed the turnaround.
The aftermath of the defeat centred around the concern of where the goals were going to come from for City on these big nights in the future. Mahrez was exceptional last season and enjoyed his best goalscoring campaign to date, but even his 24 goals were not enough to get City over their Champions League hump.
In the summer, Pep Guardiola moved to address this worry. Erling Haaland's arrival has brought to the Etihad Stadium a level of excitement not matched by any single player for some time.
His 32 goals in 31 appearances have proven to many who were doubtful that the Norwegian is the real deal. Inconsistencies in key moments have hindered City's Premier League title challenge so far but Haaland will be aware that the crucial test at City begins on Wednesday night.
Arguably City's biggest fault in the Champions League, especially in the knockout stages, should now have been rectified with the striker's arrival. Teams that have reached the pinnacle of European football have never had to worry about where the goals were going to come from and the Blues should not be any different now.
With Haaland, the signs suggest that he can be the one to help City. Against Borussia Dortmund in the group stages he was relatively quiet but when his chance came he did what was needed.
Hopefully, the Bundesliga club will not be City's biggest test on the road to Istanbul. But Haaland and co will be wanting to lay down a marker early on and show that they have learnt their painful lesson from nine months ago.
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