Man City ballboys pitch in to make home advantage work against stubborn Atletico

Manchester City made it clear before a ball had been kicked that even if they couldn't take a lead to Madrid next week, it would not be for want of trying. There may be less of a home advantage now in the Champions League with the away goals rule scrapped, yet everyone inside and outside the Etihad threw everything at breaking through the Atletico barricades.

Pep Guardiola has called before for supporters to show they want the team to go far in this competition, accepting their booing of the anthem while encouraging them to put every other ounce of energy into encouraging the team. The City boss will have been one of many on the team bus on the way into the stadium to see the blue smoke and hear the songs from fans near Mary Ds welcoming the players onto the ground.

City needed every spark they could get against an Atletico team that dug their trench near their penalty box and furiously defended it with everything they had from the outset. Any space wider than the area was conceded, but finding space between the 10 red-and-white shirts positioned next to the goal was a particularly fiendish game of threading the needle.

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Denied the opportunity to play 12, Guardiola's initial solution was to confuse the Atletico lines with not one false nine but three; Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Bernardo Silva all flooded the box at various points as Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling prowled the wings. It has worked against others, but they have not been quite so skilled or stubborn in refusing to be tempted out of (an incredibly deep) shape.

City needed any help they could get - and they got it. As soon as the game began, the South Stand were