Manchester City Rekindle Champions League Hopes with Last-Ditch Win over Bayern

The stage was set at the Etihad on Tuesday. Manchester City—who have shown little in their previous Champions League campaigns to suggest they can impact the latter stages of the tournament as most would expect (given their resources)—needed a big win in a game that really mattered.

They needed a result to kick-start a stuttering campaign that, remarkably, was still alive despite the fact that they had no wins in their opening four matches. They needed a high-quality display to inject some self-belief into their players.

This was a chance to finally show they are welcome at the top table of the game after three-and-a-bit campaigns that have largely been wracked with self-doubt and inhibited football.

They didn’t get that, but they did get a result that keeps alive their hopes of qualifying for the last-16 for the second consecutive season. Thanks to a Sergio Aguero hat-trick, City beat 10-man Bayern Munich, 3-2, for their first Champions League win this season.

Mehdi Benatia was sent off inside the area on 20 minutes after committing a foul on Aguero, who then stepped up and converted the penalty. After the 1-1 draw in Moscow earlier in the day between CSKA and Roma, this was the boost City needed to resurrect what had been a somewhat embarrassing campaign to date.

Bayern wouldn't go down easy, however, scoring two in five minutes right before halftime to reopen City's European wounds. Xabi Alonso scored his first Champions League goal in five-and-a-half years with an intelligent low free-kick that exposed City’s non-existent wall and Joe Hart’s poor angles. Then, right on the stroke of halftime, the Germans went ahead through Robert Lewandowski’s header after a Jerome Boateng cross.

As Metro's Danny Pugsley noted, the two first-half goals City conceded were simply a continuation of a highly alarming recent trend: 

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From the start of 2012/13 (their second season in CL) #mcfc have conceded 34 goals in 19 games including tonight. Just one clean sheet.

— Danny Pugsley (@danny_pugsley) November 25, 2014"

Last season’s group stage results, which saw City finish in second place with 15 points and qualify for the last-16 for the first time, were supposed to banish their European insecurities. They haven’t.

This campaign has been poor, not just in terms of results, but also performances. This match was no different).

Their play was sluggish and lacking invention. The 10 men of Bayern looked too comfortable for long periods of the game. If City are to achieve what they’re capable of in this competition, there needs to be a significant improvement.

As Sam Wallace of The Independent noted:

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Even with Benatia off the field, you needed to remind yourself at times that it was Bayern, and not City, who were playing with 10 men.

The away team controlled the first half to the extent that at half-time they had 65 per cent of the possession despite having been a man down for 25 of the first 45 minutes.

"

However, Aguero was gifted two in the final five minutes to spare City the ignominy of going five matches in Group E without a win. His goals keep City's hopes of qualification alive going into the final game of this strange group.

Alonso—who had completed more passes than any other player in the first four game of this season’s Champions League—ceded possession in midfield to Aguero, who raced away to equalise cooly. Later, Boateng’s failure to deal with a Stevan Jovetic flicked header saw the Argentine put through again.

Both times, it seemed certain he would score. Such is his emphatic ability in front of goal.

Aguero now has 17 goals in 18 appearances this season and 11 in his last 11 Champions League games—a run stretching back to the start of last season. There have been times in recent weeks, with City struggling so badly for form, when he has appeared to be their only confident and effective player. Their match Tuesday was further evidence of that.

Qualification for the last-16 still isn’t in City’s hands, though. A win for CSKA Moscow in Munich on Matchday 6 would render their efforts in Rome meaningless, since the Russians’ head-to-head record over City puts them in pole position. City’s second-half collapse in Moscow, which saw them surrender a two-goal lead and leave with just a point, remains their most damaging result.

However, if City win in Rome and CSKA fail to beat Bayern at the Allianz, it is City, remarkably, who will progress with just eight points. 

"

This is how much it meant for the lads! #cityvbayern #mcfc pic.twitter.com/0TMuu5vwTL

— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) November 25, 2014"

Afterward, City manager Manuel Pellegrini described Aguero as “one of the best players of the world,” but he said his side cannot keep conceding goals at the rate they currently are in this competition.

“I have always said before this night that Sergio is one of the best players in the world, one of the best strikers,” said Pellegrini.

“He played today, very well, but I think also the team played very well, especially in the second half. When we concede at the end of the first half it is very difficult, but we work, we press and finally we make the chances for Sergio.”

Jon Super/Associated Press

Bayern manager Pep Guardiola, meanwhile, insisted his side will do everything it can to beat CSKA in the final group game.

“I think Manchester City and Roma know we are going to try and win the game,” he said.

“We lost, but the people see we didn’t come here for holidays or to have fun. We came to win the game, and we were so close to doing it.”

City may have inflicted Bayern's first defeat of the season, but there are still huge question marks over their Champions League credentials. After 84 minutes of this game, with their qualification hopes in tatters, they’d have taken the result. However, they will need to find an extra couple of gears in order to mix it with the best.

All that matters now, though, is a positive result in Rome and a Bayern win on Matchday 6. 

Rob Pollard is Bleacher Report's lead Manchester City correspondent and will be following the club from a Manchester base throughout the 2014-15 season. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter: @RobPollard.