When Pep Guardiola wanted control last week in Paris, he turned to Jack Grealish. When he wanted control against Club Brugge to save Manchester City's season in Europe, he opted for Ilkay Gundogan.

But when Guardiola had 15 minutes to motivate his side to come back from behind against Brugge, he took off Gundogan and kept Grealish on the bench. On came Savinho and City had turned things around within 15 minutes.

Savinho's debut season at City has been full of ups and downs. Paris was a down, this was most certainly an up. On a night that began with a fire outside the Etihad, Savinho injected a spark and lit the flame.

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His wicked ball in was headed down and wide by Stones just a minute after coming on, and after Mateo Kovacic had stroked home a leveller unchallenged, Savinho waited and found the run of Josko Gvardiol to the byline. The cross was diverted in by Brugge's Joel Ordonez and the Etihad was alive again.

So were City's Champions League hopes. Savinho chested Stones' diagonal brilliantly and volleyed in his second City goal at the perfect time to cap an influential cameo with the goal that dragged his side into the knockouts.

He will look to build on this at the Emirates on Sunday if he can persuade Guardiola he deserves to start ahead of Omar Marmoush and Kevin De Bruyne - both different players but the most likely to start ahead of him.

Tellingly, his ball for Gvardiol was the type Grealish should be making, but he remained unused on the bench. Grealish was undroppable when City won the Champions League in 2023 but has been a peripheral figure this season, Paris aside.

Gundogan was another who dragged City to the treble and he was introduced to the Etihad crowd as the treble-winning captain. But his sluggish performance summed up his season and he is another who looks certain to drop out when the new signings are available and everyone is fit.

Savinho showed both that sentiment and previous Champions League performances mean nothing as Guardiola looks to find a system that can get City through their tricky play-off.

It's hard to see Grealish or Gundogan - two mainstays in Europe for Guardiola - playing much of a role against Bayern Munich or Real Madrid. Their downfalls have been symptomatic of City's struggles that got them in the position they found themselves in against Brugge.

Savinho could be the spark to get them out of it.