The two greatest victories in the Club’s history were born out of unthinkable comebacks against Gillingham in 1999 and Queens Park Rangers in 2012.
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It’s a trend which has continued into our recent history, with a bucket load of character helping us record more unlikely victories.
For the latest instalment of #City30, presented by Nexen, we asked fans to put forward their favourite comebacks of the Pep Guardiola, Nick Cushing and Alan Mahon eras.
And it was a 3-2 win away at Schalke in the last 16 of the 2018/19 Champions League which proved most popular and it should come as no surprise, given the resolve shown by Guardiola’s side that evening.
It is difficult to think of a worse scenario than trailing away from home in Europe, whilst being down to 10-men with just 20 minutes remaining, but that’s exactly the situation we found ourselves in at the VELTINS-Arena.
It had all started so well, when David Silva accepted goalkeeper Ralf Fahrmann’s gift of a pass and squared for Sergio Aguero to put us in front.
However, by half-time the game was firmly in the host’s favour after Nabil Bentaleb converted two penalties.
The first was awarded when VAR penalised Nicolas Otamendi with a yellow card for a handball after his arm was struck by Daniel Caligiuri’s shot as he moved it behind his back.
Minutes later, Fernandinho was punished when he bundled Salif Sane over and things got worse after the break when Otamendi’s earlier yellow card would come back to haunt him.
The Argentine defender was dismissed with a second booking after he brought down Guido Burgstaller in the 68th minute and suddenly, the prospect of victory seemed extremely unlikely.
But Guardiola’s men came roaring back in the final five minutes.
Leroy Sane’s 30-yard free kick levelled things up in sensational fashion before Raheem Sterling collected Ederson’s long punt forward and showed nerves of steel to complete a fantastic fightback.
Monday’s #City30 topic is: the best supersub.
Who has been the player you’ve loved to see climbing off the bench during Guardiola, Cushing’s and Mahon’s time in charge?
Let us know on Twitter using the hashtag #City30.
