City’s first great European night

manager, but there is something of a precedent from his career, from three seasons ago.

The Catalan’s Bayern Munich side were only 3-1 down to FC Porto in the 2014-15 quarter-finals, but the situation felt even worse now.

Their “shambolic” – to repeat a word used in the German press – display from the first leg had been resoundingly criticised, and was seen as part of a deeper problem to go with the 4-0 thrashing to Real Madrid the previous season and the resignation of club doctor Hans-Wilhelm Muller-Wohlfahrt.

It led a lot of questions over whether Guardiola would even see out his contract but a devastating 6-1 second-leg victory sent them into the semi-finals.

That is what City remain capable of.

Regardless of any recent problems, they are one of about four sides in the world for whom the kind of goal glut required tonight is as probable in any given game as a narrow win.

As many as 15 of their 50 matches this season have produced a scoreline that would at least bring extra-time. One of those, of course, was against Liverpool.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are a much better team than that 2015 Porto, but they have their own frailties that are particularly subject to City’s strengths.

They are frailties likely to be compounded by selection complications in midfield, where Guardiola’s side should still be so much stronger.

Kevin De Bruyne (left) and David Silva could wreak havoc there and there’s no fire like that that comes from the humiliation of two seismic defeats to rivals.

For all the focus on how Liverpool are especially suited to playing City, too, City’s movement is especially suited to a backline that can become as chaotic as Liverpool’s when panic sets in. The type of panic one goal can bring.

There’s also another potential twist here.

One of the justified arguments about Guardiola in the wake of the first-leg defeat – and so many similar 20-minute collapses in Europe – has been that he tends to needlessly over-think such first legs. It’s as if he gets so concerned with winning that he overly concentrates on little tweaks that actually negatively affect his side’s overall plan as much as the opposition.

There is no need for such secondguessing or over-thinking now.

City have already gone behind. They’ve already suffered something that amounts to a worstcase scenario for the first leg.

The extremity of the situation, however, could help clear minds. It could give City that clarity of purpose that means they just focus on what they’re best at, overwhelming sides to score mountains of goals, because that is precisely what they need.

That’s what they know they need. Actually doing it, as history proves, is another matter.

That’s why it’s so difficult. That’s why it could yet be so defining. (© Independent News Service)