Manchester City v Club Brugge: Champions League – live – Today news

16 min Nunes drives forward, finds Bernardo and continues his run, picking up the return and drilling a cross that Mignolet shovels away. City then sustain the attack, Bernardo flicking on De Bruyne’s dink for Gundogan to slot home … but then the flag goes up and replay shows he was well offside.

15 min But now Brugge win it in midfield and finds Tzolis … who slides in behind … to no one.

14 min Better from City, a ball over the top seeking Foden; Ordonez stretches to head away. Seconds later, though, Foden drives at him, makes a shooting angle on the outside, and leathers wide of the neat post.

12 min De Bruyne tries a cross but Ordonez blocks behind, the corner coming to nothing. Thing is, Brugge are making no effort to get up and out, so as soon as the ball is cleared, City pick it up and recommence probing.

11 min “Alan is right, Alexis is wrong,” reckons Mark Hooper. “Do You Believe in Shame?, The Chauffeur, Skin Trade are the top 3. It’s the law.”

Are they the best of the 80s synth-poppers? My sense is aye.

9 min City knock it about but Brugge have their spacing right, forcing their hosts to go wide. I wonder if they might try a bit of wing-play with overlap, because picking a route through the centre won’t be easy.

9 min Great news for Brugge: PSG lead at Stuttgart. If that remains the case, they’re into the last 32.

7 min City win a corner and Brugge pull everyone back – no doubt partly to defend, but i’m sure also because, Arsenal 03-04-style, you can’t mark men charging at you from their own box. And they clear this ball easily but can’t break, so City build once more.

6 min Again, one touch and Brugge are in behind, this time wider, with Talbi, whose cross is deflected into Ederson’s arms. Elsewhere, Rogers has scored again, so Villa lead Celtic 2-0.

4 min Morgan Rogers has put Villa ahead against Celtic; join Scott Murray for all the latest.

3 min Now then! A flick on and, with City high, Tzolis is away down the left! Really, he should cut in and go for goal himself but he’s got Tzolis inside so cuts back … only to find Gvardiol is well located to block the eventuating shot.

1 min De Bruyne and Haaland sprint in to press, but Brugge are calm in possession and get the ball away from immediate danger. But City soon regain it so the visitors sit in – they’re almost a back five now, with three in front.

1 min Brugge get us going!

Boos from the crowd as the Champions league anthem plays. When will Uefa stop victimising Liddle Ciddy and their billionaire owners?

Here come our teams…

I see the Gazprom is now the Crypto. Yet again, football is the winner.

“Just to make sure they beat Brugge’s total,” emails Richard Hirst, “Liverpool are throwing in Robertson AND Tsimikas. Andy Gracie will be pleased.”

That makes a grand total of 209 – known by some as the Stockton, California.

Brugge, of course, know what this competition is all about. To reach the 1978 final, they despatched KuPS, Panathinaikos, Atlético and Juve; not bad.

Guardiola says it’s important to have Stones back as he’s lacking centre-backs; he hopes to get the full 90 out of him. Otherwise, the equation is simple: win and go through, lose and go out.

Mainly, his side are talking about their own performance, not the opposition, and asked what he’ll say before they go out, he says he’s not decided, laughs awkwardly, and disappears.

“Do You Believe in Shame?” wonders Alan Terlep. “Even if you don’t think it’s the best Duran Duran song (it is though), it’s certainly the most applicable to the Champions League.”

Trudat … but the Guardian says nae.

Reminder: you can and should follow tonight’s whole raft of mayham with Scott Murray.

What can be forgotten when discussing the Champions League is that often, the side dancing around with Big Ears wasn’t the best side in the group stages. Maybe, just maybe, City have timed their form, and will be hitting a seam when the serious business starts. They still won’t have Rodri, but they will have a better clue of what to do without him – if they get there.

It’s taken longer than I expected but Andy Gracie has a higher-numbered back four for us: “If Bradley (84) and Quansah (78) are both in Liverpool’s defence that’s 162 straight off the bat. Throw in Robertson or Tsimikas and you’re already way over. Van Dijk’s piddling 4 isn’t even necessary.”

Imagine the face he’d make if you left him out though.

Email! “Club Brugge’s efforts to play out of the back on the left side should be interesting,” reckons Peter Oh. “A game of Simon (Mignolet) – Seys.”

“Why didn’t you hold it?”

“I forgot to say Simon says.”

So where is the game? City will do what they usually do, keeping possession, but I also expect them to get the ball forward more quickly than in previous seasons as they don’t quite have the confidence or quality to work it, but still have insane ability in attack.

Brugge, though, have routes to goal: Tzolis and Vanaken are having superb seasons and if they can outmuscle and outrun city in midfield – and there’s every chance they can – they’ve a chance to take advantage of a ropey back five and, in particular, a midfielder unused to playing full-back. Of course the likeliest outcome is a comfortable City win, but there’ve not been many of those lately.

Brugge rested half a team for their weekend draw with Kortrijk; Meijer, Romero, Skoras, Nielsen, Veltlesen and Nilsson drop out, with Ordonez, De Cuyper, Onyedika, Talbi, Vanaken and Jutgla coming in.

City make two enforced changes to the team which impressed in coming from behind to beat Chelsea: Kusanov and Marmoush are ineligible, so Stones and De Bruyne replace them. I semi-wonder if, in practice, they go three at the back with Nunes inverting into midfield – there’s a real shortage of pace and power as things stands, though a whole lot of nous and skill – and either way, Tzolis, Brugge’s right-winger – who has 19 goal involvements in 33 games so far this season – will be fancying himself to do something.

I wonder if there’s ever been a back four whose numbers add up to more than Brugge’s 168; presumably there has, but good effort nonetheless.

I’m going to write these down, then we’ll wonder what they might mean.

Teams!

I mentioned potential winners below, and perhaps the most impressive performance I’ve seen so far came last week when PSG walloped City. Perhaps it was no more than due punishment for perhaps the worst kit of all time, but there was a vibrancy and energy about Paris that felt different.

I remember when Man United first played in black, Ryan Giggs said the players felt unbeatable in the kit, so smart was it. This absolute Digsy’s Dinner of a rig might well have the opposite effect.

It’s incredible really: I’m not sure any British band is as synonymous with the 80s as Duran Duran, and yet their two best tunes came well into the 90s. Stop here for yet more revelatory insight.

Tonight, by the way, it’s Watkins not Duran. If things come undone, the Colombian will, as a reflex, be hungry like the wolf to restore an ordinary world.

Tangentially:

This is what can happen when teams only play one up, they’re not winning the big pots, and there’s a dearth of centre-forwards in the world. I’m not certain Ollie Watkins is really the level Arsenal want, but they need someone and, with Jhon Duran also at Villa Park, every time they kick 0ff, one of them is going to be sat at the side.

Which is to say there are a lot of teams in the playoff and last 16 who, if they turn up, are capable of beating opponents with more money. I guess the likelihood is that, by the last eight and definitely by the last four, it’s the usual names, but don’t rule out some surprises. No one will fancy facing Atalanta or Villa, while Leverkusen also have a chance.

I may receive heat for this hot take, but none of the below are all that are they? Liverpool are good, of course, but they’re not that good; already this season, Barca have lost to Osasuna, Las Palmas and Leganes; yet they’ve clattered Madrid, who generally hang about until someone good does something good, twice; and so on.

As it stands:

Back to the burning kiosk, City have said as follows:

Manchester City FC can confirm that there has been a fire in one of the outside merchandise kiosks, located near the entrance to the Colin Bell West Stand. Emergency services are present at the scene and the fire has now been extinguished. The safety of all attending the match tonight is our top priority, and as such all events planned for West Stand reception have been cancelled, including the welcome event for new players, and the first team arrival.”

Lucky they clarified their identity with an “FC”, we’d not have known who was using City’s X account otherwise.

Seeing as we’re talking USA ’94, here’s one from the annals – you can probably guess how an ex-editor of mine pronounced that final word. I can’t recall many – if any – goals which prompted such uniform shock and joy.

You can follow the fun from around Europe, here, with Scott Murray:

So here’s where I actually planned to start: Rob Smyth’s banging piece about the final night of qualifying for USA ’94.

Welcome to Manchester!

I was about to start elsewhere, but here’s some news from outside the ground, courtesy of Press Association:

An area outside the Etihad Stadium was evacuated after a merchandise stand caught fire ahead of Manchester City’s Champions League game against Club Brugge. Supporters had gathered outside the main reception for a presentation of City’s January signings. The event was suspended as flames took hold of the stand and stewards moved fans away before fire services arrived on the scene. It is unknown at this stage whether the incident will affect the scheduled kick-off time of 8pm.”

Preamble