The night began with Manchester City in flames. A blaze engulfed a merchandise kiosk outside The Etihad. It was swiftly extinguished and no one was hurt but it felt like a bad omen.
There have been times this season when it has felt as if the team that has dominated English football for the last four years was being consumed in a conflagration.
All the old certainties have flown away and when City went a goal down to a superb strike from Club Brugge's Raphael Onyedika a minute before half-time, it felt as if the unthinkable was about to happen and that the team that won the Champions League the season before last might now be eliminated at the first stage.