Pep Guardiola breathed a sigh of relief as Manchester City scraped into the Uefa Champions League play-offs with a 3-1 win over Club Brugge.
City trailed their Belgian opponents at half time before Mateo Kovacic and the lively Savinho inspired a second-half comeback with a Joel Ordonez own goal sandwiched in between.
It meant City finished 22nd in the standings and avoided crashing out before the knockout stages for the first time since 2012 and sets up a mouthwatering play-off tie against either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich next month.
Under the new format, the top eight teams – Liverpool, Barcelona, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Lille and Aston Villa – automatically advanced to the last 16 while the teams finishing 9th to 24th entered a two-legged play-off.
Guardiola said he was "realistic" about City's chances of winning adding a second Champions League title - the Spaniard guided the English club to their only previous success in 2023 - but believes his side will be better when they face either Real Madrid or Bayern Munich, wo between them have won a combined 21 European Cups.
"Right now no. I'm so realistic," said Guardiola when asked if the 2023 champions could win the competition again.
"Madrid is back in terms of results, Bayern played an incredible season so far with [coach] Vinny [Kompany]. If we have to play tomorrow it will be difficult but in two weeks we don't know.
"We are going to prepare well, be fit and try it and see what happens."
Despite their struggles, City have won six and drawn one of their last eight games but a winter slump, a period when City have usually excelled under Guardiola, has left them way off the pace in the Premier League, trailing leaders Liverpool by 12 points.
But Guardiola is hopeful they will be strengthened by the return of key players from injury and new signings Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis in the coming weeks.
"At least lately we are getting results," added Guardiola. "We are fourth in Premier League, not in the title race, no way, but still we are there.
"FA Cup we are there. Sometimes it is impossible today but tomorrow the mindset, the vibes change and I'm pretty sure we will try and create problems for Madrid or Bayern."
City's narrow escape played a central role on a dramatic final night for the first season of the Champions League's new Swiss model format.
Guardiola said he could appreciate the change has made the early stages of the competition more appealing to fans, even if it caused him far more tension.
And he believes other big clubs will face similar struggles in the future.
"As a spectator how many things [were still to be decided] is nice. The problem is we play more games in October, November, December and in the future important teams will live what we lived this season.
"We were on the verge, 45 minutes from being out. It is an incredible lesson for me, the club that nothing is [taken] for granted.
"Congratulate the team because still they have pride and we'll see how we arrive in two weeks."
Bellingham: Real Madrid ready for anyone
Jude Bellingham insisted Real Madrid would be ready for whoever they have to face in the Champions League play-offs and that the reigning champions are "starting to click" after their 3-0 win in Brest on Wednesday.
Bellingham scored Real's second goal in between a double strike from Rodrygo as the Spanish giants proved too strong for the French upstarts in Guingamp.
It was a third straight win to finish the league phase of the Champions League for Real after they started with three defeats in their first five outings, and that poor start is what led to them coming 11th in the standings.
They finished a point outside the top eight places which offered direct qualification for the last 16, and therefore enter Friday's draw for the extra play-off round.
They already know that they will face either Manchester City or Celtic in the play-offs in February, with the winners over two legs advancing to the last 16 in March.
"It was important to get the win and finish the group stage strong. I think we probably let ourselves down in a few of the games and that is the reason why we have ended up" in the play-offs, Bellingham told Uefa.com.
"No problem, we'll try and face whatever obstacle comes with a better face and you can see that we are definitely starting to click as a team in the last few weeks."
Carlo Ancelotti's side have won their last five matches in all competitions since a 5-2 pasting at the hands of Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup final in Saudi Arabia on January 12.
Rodrygo opened the scoring against Brest just before the half-hour mark for Real with a low shot across goalkeeper Marco Bizot and in off the far post, moments after the Brazilian had a header expertly saved.
Bellingham, the player of the match, sparked a breakaway and then arrived in the box to finish off Lucas Vazquez's low centre.
Rodrygo then scored again on 78 minutes, claiming a brace in a second straight Champions League game, after Mbappe's shot was saved.
Slot sees positives despite defeat
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot was happy to take the positives from his weakened side’s “eventful” 3-2 defeat against PSV Eindhoven which saw them drop their first points in the Champions League.
With nine first-teamers left at home with one eye on the Premier League leaders’ weekend trip to Bournemouth, the team fielded in the Netherlands could be described as second-string at best.
Goals from Cody Gakpo, on his return to his former club, and Harvey Elliott had given the visitors a 2-1 lead but two efforts in the final five minutes of the first half saw PSV register their first win over Liverpool.
But Federico Chiesa’s first 90 minutes since June, Jayden Danns’ Champions League debut after becoming the club’s youngest starter in the competition aged 19 years and 13 days, and 20-year-old James McConnell impressing in midfield were some of the highlights.
“Like expected I think, eventful game with many goals,” said Slot, whose side still finished top of the table.
“Both teams, maybe mainly ours, were not playing in the set-up that we usually do so then you see in some moments that we defend in a way that probably is not expected if we play with all of our starters.
“But still in the end we were able to definitely make a game out of it, especially with all these youngsters on the pitch. So, ‘eventful’ would be my word to use.”
PSG advance after 'worst draw'
Paris Saint-Germain coach Luis Enrique praised his side for making the Champions League knockout stages despite having the "worst draw of the 36 teams involved".
PSG were dominant in a 4-1 win at Stuttgart on Wednesday, having come into the game needing victory to guarantee they made the top 24 and avoid an early exit from the competition.
Ousmane Dembele scored a hat-trick after Bradley Barcola's opener as the French champions climbed to 15th in the table.
PSG will meet Ligue 1 rivals Brest or Monaco in a two-legged knockout tie in February.
"Our objective of qualifying has been achieved. We had the worst draw of the 36 teams involved, which was frustrating at the start, but we managed to clearly achieve our objective, and the performances were there," Luis Enrique said in a press conference.
PSG lost to Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid, while drawing at home against PSV Eindhoven.
The coach, who won the Champions League as Barcelona boss in 2015, said PSG's final ranking of 15th, with 13 points, "was a bit unfair, we deserved five more points at least."
