Manchester City were heading for victory against Real Madrid until the Rodri banner let them down.

It was shoddy play from the banner to play the ball straight to Vinicius with just a few minutes to go, and even worse to lazily backheel a ball intro trouble with the game tied in stoppage time. No wonder City lost!

Of all the reasons you could give for Pep Guardiola's side blowing a promising Champions League lead at the Etihad, a bit of fabric displayed in the minutes before kick-off is about as low down as Covid. If every City player had showed the fight that the banner put out, there's a good chance nobody would have been talking about it.

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The gesture clearly riled Real, who were so riled at Rodri winning the Ballon d'Or ahead of VInicius Jr they refused to attend the ceremony. Asked if he regretted the decision in hindsight, Carlo Ancelotti doubled down on the disrespect before the game in the way that anyone who starts a sentence with 'no offence but' thinks they can then be as rude as possible.

City as a club are too diplomatic to prickle Real over the snub but Blues who are fiercely proud of Rodri's achievement were perfectly entitled to boast about having the best player in the world. With an Oasis lyric to rub it in, Real were given a ruder welcome to Manchester than it expected.

Maybe it did lift the visitors, but it also galvanised an Etihad that rarely crackles so fervently. A stadium that sometimes doesn't get all bums off seats with a goal saw throw-ins and blocks roared as if the team had scored.

Ultimately it was not enough and City must accept that aggravating Madrid may have consequences - there may be a return sign waiting for the Blues in the Bernabeu - yet the same bores who are moaning about it being disrespectful will be crying next week about the loss of passion and originality from the game. As any big club does on a European night, City gave Real a bit of intimidation and bravado to leave their opponents in no doubt as to the team they were facing.

There is something seriously wrong in the Real ranks if their chance of winning or losing at the Etihad hinged on a message in the stands unfurled before kick-off, so on this occasion the result cannot reverse-engineer whether the banner was good or bad. It did help the City fans on the night though, and showed the world what they are about.

If the team can show as much character as that when they try and upset Real at their own home next week, City will have more chance of going through than they did before the banner appeared.