Could Man City really get dumped out of the Champions League?! Club Brugge upsets, missing new signings & why huge European shock may be on the cards

City's league form has obviously improved since Christmas, although it couldn't have got much worse, in fairness. Still, after losing a barely believable six of their eight games between November 2 and December 21, they've now won four of their last five to put themselves back in a decent position to qualify for next season's Champions League.

Some pundits even hailed the return of the real City after the 6-0 rout of Ipswich Town on January 19, though - tellingly - Guardiola was having none of it.

"It takes time," he warned reporters. "Next season we will be really back. Now, it is a question of survival."

And City certainly looked like a team simply hoping to weather the storm in last Wednesday's Champions League clash with Paris Saint-Germain. PSG were under even more pressure to deliver on the night, but it was City - and not the Champions League's most infamous bottlers - that capitulated at Parc des Princes.

Despite taking a totally undeserved 2-0 lead shortly after half-time, the visitors went to pieces as soon as Ousmane Dembele pulled a goal back for the hosts. As former England defender Matthew Upson said on BBC Radio 5 Live, "You just knew that PSG would go on to win the game. It was just chance after chance. PSG ran riot."

And City were powerless to prevent them from doing so. Guardiola conceded that they just "could not cope" with the opponents' intensity in midfield and attacking threat out wide. By the end of the onslaught, City had been subjected to 26 shots on goal and restricted to just 36.8 percent possession. In that sense, it was one of the worst beatings of Guardiola's entire coaching career, with the final 4-2 scoreline failing to tell the whole story.

"If we don't pass the ball well, we are one of the worst teams," the Catalan confessed. "We need the ball to survive." PSG ripped it away from them - and with Rodri still sidelined through injury, there was nothing City could do about it.

"They got absolutely bullied in that second half and it was men against boys," ex-Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said on CBS Sports. "They were lucky it was only four in the end. It could have been worse."

As Jack Grealish acknowledged, though, these blackouts have become worryingly frequent - and don't just occur against Europe's elite. On nine separate occasions this season, City have failed to win games that they were leading (five draws, four defeats) - no Premier League club has proven more profligate in all competitions.

Meanwhile, in the Champions League alone, City have dropped more points (eight) from winning positions than every other team bar the already-eliminated RB Leipzig (nine). It's no wonder, then, that a group of players that never previously lost faith in their own ability to turn things around now look nervous at the first sign of trouble.

"City's confidence has been dented and you can't just walk into the supermarket and buy confidence off the shelf," Upson argued. "They are not quite there physically either, but I think that is down to confidence. Once you get that sinking feeling, it is going to fall apart."

City should obviously dominate possession against Brugge. However, they hogged the ball against Feyenoord but still contrived to blow a 3-0 in the final 15 minutes of the game, and there is this undeniable psychological fragility about City that just wasn't there before.

"It's usually perfect for us if we come to these grounds and go two goals up," Grealish told TNT Sports at Parc des Princes. "I think that's when we're at our best (in terms of) managing the game, keeping the ball, a lot of passes and stuff.

"Unfortunately, too many times this season we've been a couple of goals up and then we end up losing it. I'm not sure why that is, whether it's a confidence thing or not. I'm not too sure at the moment. We had the momentum and then it just switched all of a sudden."

It is that heightened sense of insecurity that Brugge will be looking to exploit at the Etihad. In 14 previous attempts, the Belgians have never managed to win away to English opposition in European competition. However, they don't actually need to win in Manchester. A point would be enough to not only secure a play-off place, but also dump their hosts out of the tournament - and they'll be quietly confident of doing so.

Brugge are unbeaten in their past four Champions League games - a relatively impressive run sparked by a thoroughly deserved 1-0 win over Aston Villa - and had absolutely no trouble holding Juventus to a scoreless draw last Wednesday, the same Juventus that comfortably defeated City 2-0 in Turin on matchday six.

"They didn't allow us to play our game," Bianconeri boss Thiago Motta admitted after the game at the Jan Breydel Stadium. "So, we have to give them credit for that."

Brugge's players are obviously acutely aware of the size of the challenge that awaits them. However, goalkeeper Simon Mignolet says they're not the same side that lost 4-1 at City in November 2021.

"We have grown over the years," the former Liverpool shot-stopper said last week. "We've gained a lot of experience in the Champions League that we perhaps lacked before. Now, you can see we handle the pressure differently. There was a clear plan of what needed to be done against Juventus and we executed it."

Coach Nicky Hayen, who succeeded Ronny Delia at the helm in March and promptly led Brugge to the Belgian title, will be putting together a similarly pragmatic plan for containing City, while at the same time looking to exploit an injury-decimated defence that is likely to feature midfielder Matheus Nunes at right-back, a half-fit John Stones at centre-back and the increasingly error-prone Ederson in goal.

"You play a bit more cautiously when you know that even a point can be crucial," Hayen said, "but we created chances [against Juventus] and posed danger ourselves too."

Guardiola is certainly wary of the threat posed by Brugge. "They haven't lost in 20 games [in all competitions], they are consistent, solid, they are aggressive and don't concede chances," the former Barcelona boss pointed out in his pre-match press conference. "We played against them years ago and they've made a step up in how aggressive they are and they play really well with the ball. We have to perform really well to win the game."

At the end of the day, City's superior class should prove decisive, particularly with the likes of Erling Haaland and Phil Foden starting to rediscover something resembling their best form in recent weeks. However, the sense of uncertainty and unease at the Etihad hasn't completely lifted just yet. The sporting and financial repercussions of failing to reach the knockout stage would be huge.

Grealish was right when he said City are "lucky" to still have another crack at qualifying for the knockout stage of the Champions League, but the mere fact that they're in such a perilous position illustrates just how poorly they've performed up until this point.

As Guardiola has admitted himself, City have lost their fear factor over the past few months, meaning victory cannot be taken for granted anymore. Brugge may never get a better opportunity to knock one of the big boys out of the Champions League.