Questions were flying around the WhatsApp groups of Manchester City supporters on Wednesday morning centred on the importance of this, Club Bruges at home at the end of a very kindly drawn eight-game group stage.
Slovan Bratislava, Inter, Sparta Prague, Sporting Lisbon, Feyenoord, an unfancied Juventus, a transitional Paris Saint-Germain. It was not exactly a nightmare fixture list for City to navigate their way towards the 11 points required for qualification into the playoffs.
And yet, the question was: other than finals, when was the last match as big as this?