Manchester City were comfortable winners over Galatasaray on Wednesday night but the drama only really began after the full-time whistle
Omar Marmoush, Nathan Ake and Erling Haaland of Manchester City walk out of the tunnel to begin warm ups prior to the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD8 match between Manchester City and Galatasaray
Manchester City's players watched the conclusion of Benfica's dramatic Champions League win over Real Madrid in the home changing room at the Etihad
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In the end, it came down to the final minute of the final match. Manchester City's players applauded the Etihad crowd as they made their way off the pitch having beaten Galatasaray, Bernardo Silva and a member of the coaching staff looked up the Champions League table state of play on a screen, supporters made for the exits still unsure of what was to come.
City had won, comfortably enough really. But their 2-0 victory was not enough in isolation. They needed favours from others and as the full time whistles blew across Europe, the one man with Pep Guardiola's side's fate in his hands happened to be Jose Mourinho.
The old adversaries, so often intertwined over the past two decades, were again thrown together by the narrative of a dramatic conclusion to the Champions League first phase. Mourinho's Benfica were leading his old club Real Madrid 3-2 in injury time. Real contrived to have two players sent off knowing an equaliser would propel them into the top eight and knock City out. Benfica needed another goal to jump into the top 24 and a play-off place.
City's players, 1,500 miles away from the action in Lisbon, gathered together in the changing room to watch the concluding minutes. The City focus was on Madrid, the squad couldn't believe what they were seeing when Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin went up for a last-gasp free kick, not realising the reality facing the Portuguese side.
"We were all there so we didn’t know Benfica needed a goal to qualify so when the goalkeeper goes up, we say, 'why you go?' because Madrid can equalise and we are out," said Pep Guardiola.
Collectively City watched on.
"There was quite a bit of drama in the dressing room in the last two or three minutes," reflected Bernardo Silva. The Blues players watched as keeper Trubin headed into the net to spark jubilant scenes for Benfica. Guardiola said after the game he'd be sending Mourinho a message of thanks: "It was a good strategy for Jose to score the fourth goal, right!"
As Mourinho celebrated with gusto in Portugal, there was a collective sigh of relief in Manchester. City, humbled by Bodo/Glimt in Norway a little over a week ago, had done enough, just. The Blues can park their European campaign for a month, enjoy two free midweek dates in February, and focus on the three other competitions in which they are seeking silverware. A couple of their injured players will likely be back by the time March's Champions League ties resume and City will be thankful for the breather.
Bernardo emerged to speak to the media having just watched his former club play a part in helping out his current one.
"It was quite dramatic at the end," he said. "At half time, everything looked really good for us in terms of the other scores, and we told Pep Lijnders and Kolo (Toure) to tell us if we needed to score one more at the end.
"Because Sporting scored in the last minute, it put us in a more dangerous position, and we needed to check the Madrid game. But we're happy, happy we qualified in the top eight, but we avoided playing two more games, especially with the amount of injuries that we have at the moment, to have those two full weeks.
"It's really important to give the team time to recover physically to be able to focus on the other competitions. Because it's still a long season, and the schedule is really tough."
For City, even in a routine home victory, the night still ended with drama.