Man City 3-1 Crvena Zvezda: Pep Guardiola’s side survive scare to kick off their Champions League defence with a win thanks to Julian Alvarez double

See, don’t make Manchester City angry. This is what happens when they are angry. Red Star Belgrade led for a while. Not long, but a little.

They even took the lead just before half-time. Perfect time to score. In theory anyway. In reality, it gave a frustrated City time to breathe and they quickly released the air from the Serbian ball.

Last year’s champions started their defense with slight imperfections, missing numerous chances and requiring a helping hand from a man called Glazer, but it all seemed well measured too.

They beat Red Star in a way that the scoreline didn’t do justice. Few others in Europe are inevitably as good when a goal is lost, but that’s part of why Pep Guardiola won the lot.

Kyle Walker revealed earlier this week that the City boss showed them a diagram of a mountain and told them they were now standing at the bottom, to forget the triumphs of a few months ago.

Osman Bukari shocked Manchester City by opening the score in the first half of the match

He and his teammates were delighted and went to the bench to celebrate with the staff.

However, it didn’t last long as City’s Julian Alvarez equalized a minute into the second half.

Alvarez was on fire for Manchester City and scored his second goal of the match

Rodri then added the third and final goal of the match in the 73rd minute to see it end 3-1.

Guardiola can say whatever he wants about climbing another hill, and it’s a motivational tactic for a group of players who have heard and achieved everything at this point, but some are understandably still looking forward to the way this club climbed the last peak. And they always will. It will never be surpassed. They might try to win a quadruple at some point, but it won’t have the same feel.

The sound of Fleetwood Mac, the soundtrack to Treble, filled the halls. A montage of the exploits was broadcast on the big screens. Mike Summerbee walked away with the Champions League trophy. The UEFA anthem was widely booed. Everything and nothing changed in June.

City, who have not lost a point on the opening night of this competition for five years, camped in Red Star’s third, attacking the end where a new flag for the Istanbul winner was deployed: “Can we talk about Rodri?” They were almost at the first gates when dancing through the challenges, he launched a missile at Omri Glazer, who instinctively fought back with a strong arm. People in this part of the world are used to Glazers stalking people, so this seemed like a novelty.

So did the sight of Erling Haaland smashing a free header into Glazer’s crossbar rather than beyond the goalkeeper. Phil Foden, operating on the left and floating inside, held up magnificently. Haaland, it could be argued, tried to produce too much pace on the effort, the veins in his neck showing as he turned to make contact. The Norwegian then won the ball back after Glazer superbly headed Nathan Ake’s header wide.

Glazer initially had the match of his life, lunging to thwart Foden’s header and Red Star somehow leading seconds before the break. Osman Bukari saw Mirko Ivanic hit a ball over the top, past Ruben Dias and sliding past Ederson. Banned for offside, only for replays showing Dias playing comfortably with Bukari. Suddenly there was a game.

Guardiola will think there shouldn’t have been any. No team has recorded more shots in a Champions League first half than City’s 22 since Opta began recording statistics in 2003.

The 23 ended up being the equalizer and potentially one of the greatest upsets in European history lasted just over a minute. Haaland showed why he is much more to this team than a scoring cyborg, drifting from the front and laying on a plate for Julian Alvarez. The Argentine rounded Glazer and headed home for his third of the campaign.

Kyle Walker thought he had given them the lead shortly after, before it was ruled offside. Glazer made his first real mistake of the evening by failing to muster Alvarez’s effort, only to jump to stop Haaland’s follow-up.

If this error was serious, the next one was accompanied by sound effects. Alvarez’s free kick, a cross, had a whip but seemed perfectly catchable. Glazer, uncontested, chose to strike. He threw a limp fist at a different line than the ball, missed, and turned around in horror. From hour to hour, City led and normality was restored.

Rodri also had time to get into the far corner after cleverly searching for space using decoys Foden and Jeremy Doku. Guardiola, arms raised, saw the job finished.

More soon…