At last, Bayern Munich had the goal they had craved all night.
Thomas Tuchel's side had huffed and puffed ferociously at the City door all evening from the first whistle, although it was testament to the defence of the Premier League champions that it took a dodgy penalty to get them on the scoresheet. In a monumental defensive effort collectively, Ederson has taken some serious credit away from this tie.
Still, there have been so many wobbles from City in this competition that, late as it was, the Bayern goal still posed them a question. A look to the centre-circle saw their two leaders giving messages that will have delighted Pep Guardiola.
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Kevin De Bruyne was stood facing his teammates assuming their positions, using a finger from each hand to point to his temples: keep the focus, was the word. Ilkay Gundogan, on the other side of the centre-circle used his arms to encourage everyone to stay calm.
That is exactly what City did. Bayern kept knocking on the door but it stayed closed enough for the Blues to claim a memorable win and book a semi-final rematch with Real Madrid. And in fairness, as ragged as they had been run by Bayern through the course of the evening there was never the sense of the wheels falling off even if there was a bit of teetering.
That sense that opponents once had that if you got at City you could spark a collapse was absent in Munich, and has arguably been gone since their run to the Champions League final in 2021 if you count the Real semi last year for the absolute one-in-a-million scenario that it seemed to be.
"Maybe before in games like this we didn't like to be defending as much or struggling as much and we always wanted everything to go perfect," suggested Nathan Ake after a weary evening spent chasing after Kingsley Coman. "But now we accept how tough it will be. We suffered and everyone kept going and in the end we came through."
Bernardo Silva said similar in his post-match interview about the team accepting that they will not be able to control everything against high-quality opponents at this stage of a major competition. Guardiola craves control more than anything in a football match, but sometimes City's pursuit of it has led to some spectacular implosions.
For so long City have been seen as a team that can only play in one way, albeit a way that wins most football matches. The more they are able to suffer without control yet come through, the stronger their belief will be going into the huge games left standing between this team and history.
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