Manchester City 2-1 Club Brugge. Under normal circumstances, that scoreline wouldn't be any cause for concern. Just a regular old UEFA Champions League group game that City were going to win, obviously.
Except for the roughly 50,000 souls inside the Etihad, this wasn't obvious at all. Among clubs in the Premier League, City had given up the most points from winning positions all season long. A campaign that had slowly unravelled after Rodri's injury early in the season, looked all set to reach its nadir when Raphael Onyedika gave Brugge the lead on the stroke of half-time.
Pep Guardiola's side were about to exit the Champions League - well earlier than expected. The silence in the Etihad wasn't a joke anymore. It's not as if Brugge weren't deserving of their lead either - the visitors had troubled City right from the off and with their own playoff hopes at stake, kept pushing. The 1-0 lead at half time was just rewards for Brugge - City hadn't hit the target with a single shot in the opening 45.
When they did, it came via Mateo Kovacic's best 'fine-I'll-do-it-myself' impression and City had their equalizer with their first shot on target of the game - in the 53rd minute. The lead, coming nine minutes later, was fortunate, as young Joel Ordonez diverted Josko Gvardiol's cross into the net with no City striker lurking.
And yet, the nerves around the Etihad remained. Guardiola's form of celebration of the second goal came about by kicking the cooler next to him - transparent to all watching that this wasn't over. Despite the scoreline, City weren't purring by any means, and their opponents knew it. Brugge amped up the stakes by going close again, and City's desperation grew when Erling Haaland and Savinho missed great chances in quick succession.
'Typical City' - that oft-used phrase by fans of the club pre-monetary infusion felt all too familiar again. The late sucker punch from Brugge almost felt like an inevitability. As City passed the ball around facing the visitors' low block, the murmurs around the stadium gave voice to the anxiousness in the stands.
As the clock ticked over into the 77th minute, John Stones found himself facing that very low block. He meandered, with every sky-blue City shirt seemingly marked by a black Brugge one. As Josko Gvardiol drifted towards the edge of the box, Michal Skoras was briefly distracted and went over to cover his run.
That was all Stones needed. Spying his teammate on the left wing out of the corner of his eye, Stones took a touch to set up a long diagonal. To his credit, Skoras immediately knew what was about to happen - Stones was about to spray the ball to Savinho in acres of space down the left - and the Brugge defender immediately took corrective action.
Knowing what to do in football is one thing, executing it another. Stones didn't even look up - eyes firmly on the ball, he measured a cross-field pass to Savinho so well that you could very easily confuse him for Kevin de Bruyne at that moment. The ball sailed over the hastily retreating Skoras, right into Savinho on the run.
If this was the Savinho we'd seen at Girona last season, there'd have been little doubt about him scoring. The young Brazilian had struggled to adapt to the winger role in Guardiola's system - something even £100m footballers have struggled with. Coupled with his miss from a few minutes earlier, this chance was far from a foregone conclusion. Precisely why City had invested money in acquiring the services of Omar Marmoush a few days ago.
Savinho seals our spot in the play-offs! 🇧🇷💥 pic.twitter.com/mjSA4rIWIW
- Manchester City (@ManCity) January 30, 2025
And yet, 20-year-old Savinho rose to the challenge, controlling the ball brilliantly on his chest. As the ball bounced down into his path, he had a couple of options. The safe one was squaring it across to Haaland at the far post, who'd burst past his marker. The far more difficult one was attempting to score himself - and that's what he chose. Not waiting for the ball to take another bounce, Savinho hammered a powerful drive at the near post, the ball squeezing under the outstretched arm of Simon Mignolet and bursting into the net.
The reaction of the crowd within the Etihad was very audible, the sharp intake of breath when Savinho controlled the ball and the joyful eruption when he scored. The air of nervousness had dissipated - City had made it to the playoffs of the UEFA Champions League, and the season was still salvageable. The release of emotions at full-time were in sharp contrast to the tension at half-time - maybe this was the current vintage's version of 'Typical City'.
For trusting in his own skill when he had every reason not to, and thus taking City back to dreamland, Savinho takes our UCL Moment of the Week.