After Kylian Mbappe gave Paris Saint-Germain the lead against the run of play, the Etihad Stadium faithful would not have been particularly fussy over their preferred Manchester City goalscorers.
It has not always been the case in the Champions League, but Pep Guardiola’s players – without the talents of Kevin De Bruyne, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish – brought their absolute best to the party, comprehensively outplaying PSG, who staggered back to the dressing rooms at half-time in receipt of a 0-0 hiding.
A capacity crowd responded in kind to produce a full-throated occasion that Mbappe briefly threatened to ruin, just as he did on the same ground with Monaco almost half a decade ago.
As it turned out, Raheem Sterling and Gabriel Jesus were the men to turn the contest around. It would be hard to pick two more popular goalscorers in these parts on such an occasion.
The Champions League has proved an unforgiving arena for City and that is particularly true for Sterling and Jesus.
Sterling has 23 goals in 61 City appearances in Europe’s premier competition, while Jesus has 19 in 34. In terms of pure numbers, their records are very impressive indeed.
However, they have a horror evening in common after starting as City’s front two in the shambolic 3-1 quarter-final loss to Lyon in Lisbon in August 2020.
(Image: Alex Livesey – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Jesus scored in both legs of the win over Real Madrid in the previous round, with Sterling getting the other in a 2-1 win at a behind-closed-doors Etihad Stadium.
That took him to six in eight matches during the pandemic-affected 2019/20 Champions League, but the lasting image of Sterling in that year’s tournament was his implausible miss with the goal at his mercy as Lyon led 2-1.
Jesus was also guilty of horrible wastefulness in that match and it was telling how little each man featured at the business end of last season’s competition.
Between them, they started one game in the knockout rounds until Sterling’s surprise and ultimately fruitless selection for the final defeat to Chelsea.
The wait to atone for that Lyon heartbreak has been long and will have irked two proud competitors.
When Jesus touched on Kyle Walker’s improvised volleyed cross for Sterling to prod home on Wednesday, City had lift off and were not going to let PSG off the hook again.
Following a debilitating goal drought for his club, that’s now three in three for the England star. Don’t call it a comeback…
Jesus’ own situation has been looking brighter for some time, thanks to a succession of selfless and superb displays on the right wing this season.
Guardiola will still need an approximation of number nine muscle from time to time and Jesus showed he can do the nitty-gritty work of a centre-forward when required, especially with his repaired confidence levels.
Seeing him and Sterling thrive in an ever-moving forward line of harrying harassment for Guardiola struck a sharp contrast to the glamourous but glacial trio of Mbappe, Neymar and Lionel Messi.
The better team certainly won and City are a team full of redemption arcs and second-chance successes.
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Who would have had Rodri and Joao Cancelo down as standout performers in the Premier League after their underwhelming starts to life in Manchester two years ago? Oleksandr Zinchenko has certainly had more successful comebacks than starts in central midfield over the course of his City career.
Then there’s Bernardo Silva, an apparently forlorn and wantaway star a few months ago who is now indisputably one of the finest players on the planet at this moment.
Inevitably it was Bernardo with the lay-off for Jesus to steer City to victory and top spot in Group A. Sterling rushed into the huddle to congratulate his long-time colleague, a picture of delight as they banished the torment of Lisbon and Lyon together.
Have Sterling and Jesus turned a corner in their City careers? Follow our City Is Ours editor Dom Farrell on Twitter to get involved in the discussion and give us your thoughts in the comments section below.
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