Don't believe the hype, we are nowhere near previous levels.
Timing is everything and we may just have it on our side, but ignore the hype train.
We got a chasing last night, certainly first half and were let off the hook.
Dias and Bernie had to compensate for some very below-par showings from Ake, Gundo, Kev and Rodri.
Still huge games to come in between and would have preferred Madrid at home for first leg, like Bayern, try and wipe them out.
No away goal means that whole playing home second is no advantage.
Agree that our performance in the first half was shaky. But our game management in the second half was much better and a night that could have been complete chaos (we've seen it before in Monaco and Madrid) ended up being pretty uneventful. Apart from Sané missing two 1 on 1 chances, Bayern created next to nothing across both legs. Plus Ederson is a City player and he is allowed to make crucial interventions without it being seen as a failure by the other 10 City players that Ederson had to make a good save.
Have to disagree about us not having an advantage with the second leg at the Etihad as well. The away goals rule no longer counting does mean the odds are slightly more in Madrid's favour than they would have been 2/3 years ago, but going to Bernabeau needing to protect any scoreline basically makes no difference in this competition. Of all the teams that just do not fuck off, Madrid are the team that just do not fuck off the most. I'd much rather lose 2-1 in Madrid and bring them back to ours than win 2-1 at the Etihad and have to go to the Bernabeau.
This City team, like 99% of teams, is at its best when it has one plan in mind: play to win. You could see it in the first half last night that we were caught in two minds over whether to protect or extend our lead, and our approach was a bit disjointed as a result. Getting to half-time at 0-0 was huge, though, and you could sense it when we came back out - Bayern never got going again like they did in the first half and they didn't have a killer up front (like Benzema, Vinicius or Haaland) to randomly stab one in when the chips were down.
It got a bit end-to-end for 10 mins just after half-time but the time between Haaland shooting straight at Sommer from Grealish's pass and then scoring the goal to make it 1-0 was about two minutes. We got in, straight through on goal, twice in two minutes... at the Allianz. We definitely were the better, more clinical team across two legs and deserved to go through. If Rodri, Gundo, Kev, etc. are going to have off-nights at the same time, it's best that they do it in a game we're already winning 3-0 and in a game where Bernardo, Ederson, and Grealish all stepped up.
But I do agree with you that the performance vs. Bayern, at least in the first half, was a big concern with Madrid coming up. It's why I'm really fucking relieved that whether we go into the 2nd leg needing to protect or chase the game, we're at least doing it at home, where we've not lost in 25 European games. The other way around, I would not be confident at all, I'll be honest.
