If there is one thing no one saw coming in the new-look UEFA Champions League, it was Manchester City finishing towards the bottom of the play-off

A bold new vision for the Champions League was launched this season. It has involved more games and more money for European soccer’s elite in a rebuttal to the threat of a controversial breakaway super league.

Manchester City will not win the Champions League this season. There, I’ve said it. Somebody had to. As City clambered desperately aboard the last lifeboat off the titanic climax to UEFA’s catchily-named League Phase, the other survivors all cursed quietly under their breath. Nobody wants Guardiola in Friday’s bracket draw.