Manchester City are just about the team for the big occasion but will not be feared by anyone in the play-off after another limp performance
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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