Kevin De Bruyne had turned out of trouble all evening but he had finally been caught.
Another Champions League night, another sight of Manchester City's most creative player being smashed into as he struggled to keep his balance. Only this time it wasn't an opposition player but City's hulking chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, who simply could not contain his happiness as he bounded down a tunnel at the Allianz Arena and spotted De Bruyne doing a post-match interview.
Al Mubarak was part of a delegation of City suits in Munich that night who felt the need to mark the occasion as City not only made a European semi-final for the third straight year but did it by beating one of the biggest powers in world football. The chairman joined Pep Guardiola on the turf in an emptied stadium along with Txiki Begiristain and other executives to take a triumphant selfie: City had come to the home of one of their biggest rivals, and they had conquered.
It was the besting of Bayern that convinced everyone at the club that they could really win the Champions League, showing the progress made from previous months when the team was flapping about struggling to find consistency in their level. It had only been one round ago where Guardiola had marched onto the pitch at full-time in Germany to tell his players to hold their heads up high after a 1-1 draw in Leipzig where they had been second-best for large parts.
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"People expect we are going to win 5-0, that's not a reality," the manager said afterwards. "It is past the group stage in a very competitive competition and many important teams around."
The score in the return leg? 7-0
That night at the Etihad was a reminder of the extraordinary talent that City have acquired this season, with Guardiola in disbelief as the ball fell to Erling Haaland again, and again, and again, and again, and again. Five times the Norwegian was in the right place at the right time to turn a potentially difficult evening into another record-breaking celebration, and he spent a third of the match on the bench.
If that night stood out for how the No.9 could win big games for his team in a way that the Blues were perhaps not able to in the last two years, it marked a pattern of big players turning up in big games. Jamal Musiala had just seen a goalbound shot blocked by the outstanding Ruben Dias when Bayern visited the Etihad when Rodri launched one into the top corner for the opening goal in a 3-0 win, while Ederson was outstanding in both legs after coming in for some fair and a lot of unfair criticism during the season.
It was that night at the Allianz that mattered so much though. City were of course confident with a 3-0 lead but Thomas Tuchel - slayer of the Blues in the 2021 Champions League final - whipped up the Bavarian crowd to be louder than the Yellow Wall and sent Leroy Sane and Kingsley Coman out to do as much damage as possible.
A pumped-up Haaland missed a penalty to settle City nerves before leaving Dayot Upemecano on the floor and putting his fingers to shush the crowd after extinguishing the tie, although it was also the night that Nathan Ake suffered an injury that would lead to him losing his place for the semi-final. The Blues may have been licking wounds, but they had still produced their finest result in the competition.
The Champions League does not happen in a vacuum, and their results in Germany contributed to an outstanding run of 25 games unbeaten in all competitions that set them up for the Treble. It was this upturn in form that convinced Guardiola his players were ready to make history and led to him finally letting his guard down and admitting what he had previously refused.
For years, Guardiola has ridiculed the idea that he was brought to City to win the Champions League but in the press conference room at the Santiago Bernabeu, he made an important caveat. "I know the demand from my club to win the Champions League. I had the feeling when I arrived," he said. "They didn't ask me but I know the feeling that after the first Premier League the target was the Champions League."
That felt like a pressure release valve, going into an enormous semi-final. And while Real Madrid put City through the wringer the following night to show why they are the kings of Europe - delighting Spanish media who had been weirdly irritated by a newspaper column by Wayne Rooney saying City would not just beat Real but destroy them - the Blues did not lose their heads as they had done in the same stadium 12 months earlier and De Bruyne stepped up where it mattered to leave things level for the second leg.
The ability to suffer in matches was perhaps the most important evolution in this City team, removing the panic that had previously existed when things didn't go their way. For all that it added another layer to the side though, Guardiola still spent most hours of most days ensuring his team didn't have to go through it.
At the Etihad, City destroyed Real. It was the type of performance that could be spoken of in years to come as the trigger for the end of one era or the beginning of another, it really was that good as Bernardo Silva led an all-star cast to do in 90 minutes to Real what Real have done to this competition for most of the last decade.
As the players embarked upon wild celebrations in front of an elated Etihad, some more scores were settled. Guardiola was seen teasing Rio Ferdinand after BT Sport put out footage of the former United player celebrating Vinicius Jr's goal in the first leg, while another ex-Red Patrice Evra - a man never short of a hot take who said that Guardiola couldn't deal with big personalities in his squad and turned up to the second leg in an all-red suit - was put in his place by the manager's right-hand man.
Having been booed mercilessly at the Bernabeu a week earlier, Guardiola then joined the rest of the executives in another backstage picture holding up four fingers to the camera; you can take the boy out of Barcelona but you can't stop him absolutely loving victories over Real. Again though, this was as much a vindication of City's progress though after last year's heartache.
Between that match and the final, City lifted the Premier League title and the FA Cup. A team that was struggling to keep their heads above water in February was suddenly one game away from completing the Treble, an achievement managed only once before in English football and in the year where the Blues were fighting their way out of the third division.
Conversations, underscored by the acceptance that a guilty verdict on the club's most serious Premier League charges would change the discussion, are now about whether this is the best City team ever and where they sit in the pantheon of the best ever to have played the game. Given City's rebirth in spring, it felt fitting that the final would be against Inter Milan, a three-time Champions League winner with so many characteristics in their team that are exactly what Guardiola's side don't like to face.
Having beaten two of the other six sides to win a Treble in world football, the Blues would need to beat another to match United's achievement. It was an Italian side with plenty of the same characteristics that have been City's downfall in Europe before, with a compact system of five at the back waiting to pounce on an error and then see out the game.
Nobody could say that City had this easy with their final three opponents in the competition. On top of that, Guardiola and his players were going to have to see off their worst enemy - themselves - if they were to finally lift the trophy that has so eluded the club.
The final hours of June 10 in Istanbul were horrible as City wobbled and rocked against an Inter side determined to cause an upset and end their season on the biggest high imaginable. Guardiola was reduced to his knees at times as a spectator, and repeatedly urged his players to calm down and relax as they made bad decision after bad decision.
After 60 minutes came the ultimate vindication of the Guardiola project at City. Manu Akanji - a bargain £15m buy from Dortmund at the start of the season - played the ball between defenders for Bernardo Silva to run onto in the box and he cut the ball back for the tireless Rodri to fire home; a number of quality Ederson saves in the final minutes ensured City won 1-0.
Finally, the Blues had done what they had not done against Monaco, or Liverpool, or Spurs, or Lyon, or Chelsea, or Real Madrid. They listened to their manager's instructions to keep their heads and found the moment of quality with a goal that has been a trademark of the manager's seven years at the club.
This time the celebration pictures were accompanied by a majestic trophy before City partied long into the next morning, and the sight of owner Sheikh Mansour attending only his second-ever game told you everything about how significant a night it was for the club.
Guardiola was asked after the match if they had replaced Real as the benchmark in Europe and joked that they were only 13 Champions League triumphs behind. Now they have finally won one though, every club on the continent will be on alert; the boys in Blue are coming after them.
The Treble of Premier League, FA Cup and UEFA Champions League is the ultimate footballing achievement and you can get your hands on the only official souvenir publication of Manchester City's history-making 2022-23 season, packed with amazing pictures, match reports and reaction. Get your copy here.
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