When Pep Guardiola comes to picking his team for the league game with Fulham on Saturday, he can start with anyone who wasn't in the XI against Sevilla.
This will not greatly alarm the Manchester City manager, for this was always the plan. Topping the group with a game to spare allowed the opportunity to rest some players and prioritise the Premier League, and the sight of John Stones, Joao Cancelo, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva on the bench confirmed it.
But it should disappoint any of those who had intentions of earning a place against Fulham with a stellar performance in the Champions League that they were outshone by a 17-year-old even if Rico Lewis deserved every bit of the celebration for a dream goal on his full club debut.
Also read: Man City player ratings as Rico Lewis enjoys dream debut
Lewis is one of the best stories at City this season, the Radcliffe-born teenager who caught the eye of first-team coaches in summer and has fearlessly passed everything thrown at him with flying colours. A terrific performance at the Camp Nou in a charity match in August certainly impressed Guardiola.
The City boss doesn't just give appearances out for fun though, they are not presents. That was shown clearly by City adding young winger Carlos Borges to their official competition squad overnight, only to leave him out of a matchday selection that was three shy of a full bench.
Lewis has seriously impressed on the training pitch and in matches, and the 17-year-old fully earned the chance to make his full City debut. That wasn't enough for him to avoid getting the hairdryer treatment that all the other first-team players do mind, with the manager constantly shouting for him to come wider during a difficult first half.
That was quickly forgotten seven minutes into the second half, when a lovely ball slipped through from Julian Alvarez saw the youngster career into the box and smash it past Yassine Bounou in the Sevilla goal with all the confidence of a predatory marksman. Erling Haaland, watching in the stands as he continues to recover from a bruised ligament in his foot, would have been happy with that one.
As well as being the second youngest English player to score in the competition after Jude Bellingham, Lewis became the youngest player to score on his first start in the Champions League - breaking a record previously held by Karim Benzema. Obviously, the Bury defender can still only dream of having the careers that those two have had, but equally he is not in such esteemed company by fluke.
Lewis's goal was the first real spark from City after a first half in which they had underwhelmed and fallen behind. On a horribly rainy night in Manchester, the Blues started with a flatness that even the crowd were unable to lift.
When Ruben Dias and Sergio Gomez did an abysmal job of marking Rafa Mir from a corner in the 31st minute, City could claim it was against the run of play but they had threatened the other goal so rarely that it hardly felt unjust. As the half-time whistle went, the only energy from the hosts had been Rodri warming up on the sideline ready to come on for Jack Grealish at half-time.
While Guardiola may have expected some disruption given the changes in the team, he expects those who don't play as often to prove him wrong whenever they do get a chance. City's best player in the first half was Phil Foden, who was always likely to start the two league games anyway.
The Blues boss said in his programme notes that he would not apologise for celebrating entry to the last-16, and a look around Europe makes his point for him. Barcelona and Juventus dropped into the Europa League with games to spare, while Atletico - who gave the Blues such a torrid time in last year's quarter-final - came rock bottom of their group.
Winning the competition will remain the elephant in the room for the manager and for the owners until they are able to break their duck, but they will take plenty of satisfaction from the reputational and commercial uplift from becoming an automatic name for the latter stages of the competition. City have certainly come a long way in a short time in that regard.
Much of that platform has been built at home, with City carrying a 22-match unbeaten run at the Etihad in this competition into this game. Guardiola has only actually lost one of his 33 matches here, with two of the three defeats in his time coming while he was not on the touchline.
Such runs do matter, and unsurprisingly people that win a lot really do not take well to losing generally. There was a reason Guardiola was so agitated on the touchline.
The introduction of Rodri - one of City's most reliable first-team players - helped to turn the tide, with the hosts instantly looking more lively and playing at a better tempo. Bernardo too offered fresh impetus when he came on for Ilkay Gundogan and it was the arrival of Saturday's matchwinner Kevin De Bruyne that really turned the game.
One defence-splitting ball from a man who plays more of them in a week than many manage in a lifetime was enough to see Alvarez sprinting clear of his man and rounding the keeper before smashing it into the net. Not long after, the Argentine harried a player out of possession on the edge of the Sevilla third and then put it on a plate for Riyad Mahrez to add a third.
City's third preserved the unbeaten run in the competition, ending the group stage on a high note after it had threatened to fizzle out. And if it was obvious that the cavalry of first-team players were needed to win the game, it should please Guardiola that Alvarez began to look better with those players around him.
While there are easy decisions to make elsewhere on the pitch for Saturday, the manager may have no choice but to pick Alvarez if Haaland is not fit enough after his injury. After the 22-year-old's second half here, there will be much less hesitation about seeing him lead the line given the confidence he will take from his match-winning contributions.
Others may have failed to take their chance on Tuesday, but if Lewis was the story Alvarez may have earned the chance to make more headlines this week.
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