Borussia Monchengladbach were the visitors on a rain-soaked August Wednesday night, and it was the visitors who took the lead early on before Ellis Plummer got City back on level terms midway through the first half.
Both teams had chances but in the end no more goals were forthcoming and it was honours even after a tightly-contested encounter.
Inaugural winners of this competition last season, City were looking to match that achievement with another strong showing in Europe.
A thrilling introduction to this tournament in 2014/15 ended with a hotly-contested final against a very strong Porto side, with Kelechi Iheanacho’s early strike proving enough to see the trophy adorned with blue and white ribbons.
This year, City have been drawn alongside Sunderland and Athletic Bilbao as well as Borussia Monchengladbach in the group stages, with the top two progressing to the quarter finals.
With this game the curtain raiser for the whole competition, both sides knew this was a chance to lay down an early marker in the race for a knockout berth.
There were only four survivors from the starting XI against Porto – the EDS having a more youthful look at the start of this new campaign following loan moves and promotions from the u18s.
However, at this early stage of the season Patrick Vieira continues to shuffle his pack, giving all his youngsters a chance to get minutes under their belt and impress at this level. As such, he made five changes from the side that started the last league outing at home to Spurs.
Plummer, James Horsfield, Kean Bryan, David Faupala, and Jorge Intima all came into the starting XI, while George Evans took the captain’s armband and marshalled the midfield.
After a sluggish opening, Borussia Monchengladbach found themselves ahead almost out of nothing – Michel Leider found the back of the net after nine minutes with a low effort from just outside the area in what was the first real action around either box.
The visitors might have doubled their lead through the lively Gianluca Rizzo, but fortunately for the boys in blue his effort drifted away from the target.
However, it didn’t take City long to spark into life and respond in the perfect style. Bersant Celina whipped in a free kick and after the ball was headed back across goal Plummer was on hand to provide the finishing touch.
As the heavens opened in true Mancunian style, Faupala had an excellent chance to give the young Blues the lead midway through the opening half but screwed his shot into the side netting, after a wonderful throughball from Intima, when he probably should have done better.
At the other end, Angus Gunn produced a smart stop to deny Rizzo, while Manu Garcia couldn’t drag the ball out from under his feet in time to get a shot away after an excellent run from Celina down the left hand side and the halftime whistle blew with the scores still level.
Chances were slightly easier to come by for both sides after the interval, and only keeper Martin Kompalla denied Faupala his goal after the French striker was set away by Intima, before he and Thierry Ambrose both had shots blocked by the limbs of Borussia defenders.
Gunn was called upon to deny Bilal Sezer from range, while goalscorer Plummer had a key impact in his own penalty area shortly after the hour mark with a fantastic last-ditch tackle to keep the scores level.
City dominated the possession in the last half hour and looked the more likely to find a winner, but although they surged forward and pressed as a team, they struggled to get beyond a well-organised Monchengladbach defence.
Time was against the young Blues and in the end, the points were shared in what was a fair reflection of a tight game. Vieira will be hoping his side can pick up all three points when his side meet Sunderland in this competition on Bank Holiday Weekend.
