Drawing Monaco in the Champions League round of 16 represents the final frontier for Manchester City.
For so long, the supporters have seen the competition as a necessary evil, a by-product of the success the club has enjoyed in recent years. For so long, draws have been tough, and difficult groups just kept coming. They drew Napoli and Bayern Munich in their very first participation and Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund soon followed. Bayern came on three separate occasions. Barcelona appeared twice in consecutive years in the first knockout round. It seemed that the coefficient just would not allow City to progress.
Then last year, suddenly and unexpectedly, real progress was made with Manuel Pellegrini's ageing side reaching the last four for the first time in the club's history. The somewhat pale showing in the two games against Real Madrid left a bitter taste in the mouth with City fans expecting a heart-on-sleeve display of northern grit.
The arrival of Pep Guardiola did not seem to change the club's luck with a difficult Group C draw: Borussia Monchengladbach, Celtic and, hello, Barcelona again. But City survived despite patchy form in the Catalan coach's opening months and have now found their reward.
Finally, they have been blessed with the draw they would have yearned for. Monaco represent the easiest draw left open from the options restricted by UEFA's carefully arranged rules and regulations.
Despite their good form in Ligue 1 -- where they are currently running ahead of champions Paris Saint-Germain, who City turfed out in last year's Champions League quarterfinals -- and despite the fact that talented manager Leonardo Jardim is building a side to match the legendary 2004 team that reached the Champions League final in Gelsenkirchen, the Monaco side offer a great chance for City to reach the quarterfinals for the second year running.
If achieved, their presence in the Champions League latter stages begins to look less of a surprise. With the club's evident ambition to climb to the ranks of Bayern, Barcelona and Real as pillars of the tournament, only continued presence towards the latter stages can fulfil this.
Optimism after drawing Monaco has already been reflected in City's odds to win the tournament outright, perhaps a fanciful thought to those watching the heartless cave-in at Leicester last weekend, with Guardiola's men now fifth favourites behind the usual big-hitters plus Atletico Madrid.
These may seem small building blocks to some, but progress in this competition was glacial to begin with and has only really picked up pace in the past 12 months.
Manchester City director of football Txiki Begiristain has already attempted to throw cold water on fans' understandable enthusiasm for the draw by pointing out that Monaco topped Tottenham's qualifying group. It was Spurs, of course, who dismantled City at White Hart Lane in the Premier League back in October, so nothing can be taken for granted.
The prospect of drawing any from Borussia Dortmund, Napoli or Juventus would have sent a shudder down the spines of those who remember unhappy outings in each of those places. Atletico have yet to be encountered in City's short history of participation, but would also have represented a significant hurdle.
With City licking their wounds after a harrowing 4-2 defeat at Leicester, a setback that refocused attention on a shaky and maladjusted defence, perhaps the last thing they would have wanted to see sweeping through the Etihad front door is the highest-scoring team in Europe. Monaco's 53 league goals is easily the best in any of the major European leagues so far as we approach the halfway stage of the season. Such free-scoring and mobile attacking play will give Guardiola nightmares in the coming weeks as he plots a way to keep the ball out of the City net.
The only consolation is that the sides will meet in February after the transfer window, and City will more than likely have had the opportunity to bolster defensive lines with players who can best put Guardiola's ideas into practice. Until then, they will have to maintain a thin line between risk and achievement.
With Chelsea pulling away at the top of the Premier League, the last thing City's movers and shakers want is to enter the tie with Monaco knowing it is the club's only chance of success this season.
Begiristain insisted: "It's always difficult to say whether it's a tough draw or an easy draw." Playing down burgeoning expectations is always high on the agenda in situations like this, but there can be little doubt that -- given the choice -- that fans' first-pick opponent would almost universally have been Monaco.