Manchester City are so good even their negatives are positive

Questioning a manager who had won his last 17 fixtures, it was hard to find too many negatives to throw at Pep Guardiola. Then, in the press room of the Etihad Stadium, one was unearthed. Was it not a bad time for Manchester City to top their group, their manager was asked, when they might draw Real Madrid, Bayern Munich or Juventus?

Guardiola gave a shrug and remarked that he didn’t mind playing anyone, given City’s form. However, statistically, it is usually wise to finish first in your group and City would know this more than anyone.

Of the last 28 clubs to reach a Champions League semi-final, only three did not top their group and that includes 2013 when two of the semi-finalists, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, began in the same group.

The Champions League is not a competition in which teams often find form halfway through. Even Chelsea, whose careering, edge-of-the-cliff route to the European Cup in 2012 was said to be a mixture of nerve and luck, qualified from Group E in first place.

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Two years ago, City ended their group stage level on points with Bayern Munich but with a slightly poorer head-to head record. In the draw for the knockout rounds, Bayern got Shakhtar Donetsk, whom they thrashed 7-0 in the Allianz Arena. Just as they had the season before, when they also finished second behind Bayern, Manchester City drew Barcelona.

City’s only significant run in the European Cup came in Manuel Pellegrini’s final season when they finished a point ahead of Juventus in their group and reached the semi-finals. City drew Dynamo Kiev in the round of 16. Juventus were given – and were beaten by – Bayern Munich.

That was why Raheem Sterling’s lovely late chip on the run against a dogged and resolute Feyenoord, combined with Napoli’s two second-half goals against Shakhtar Donetsk, was significant.

Had the two games finished goalless, as they were at half time, there would just have been a chance Donetsk might have finished first in Group F, although they would have needed to have beaten City by three clear goals in Ukraine to have done so.

As it is, Guardiola can keep the bulk of his first team back to prepare for the Manchester derby while giving Phil Foden and Brahim Diaz their full debuts.

The sight of Foden, the star of England’s Under-17 World Cup triumph in India, replacing Yaya Toure against Feyenoord was one that would linger.

For all the money lavished on it, the City academy seemed to lack a role model at a club where so little is actually from Manchester. What chance did a graduate have of first-team football, when the world’s finest manager had unlimited resources to bring in the world’s finest footballers?

On a rain-blown November night in Manchester the academy delivered its answer in the sight of a 17-year-old from Stockport, who had been part of the club since he was eight, replacing Toure. It was a poignant changing of the guard. Foden’s only regret was that a lack of a signal in the home dressing room meant he could not ring his mum.