Manchester City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 0
They were playing that classic Oasis B-side "The Masterplan" over the speakers at Eastlands before kick-off last night, one of those trademark maudlin Noel Gallagher numbers about learning to accept the hand life deals you. At Manchester City, adopting that philosophy has become a necessity over the years but not last night. Because last night, at long last, the world turned according to City's master plan.
Roberto Mancini has fulfilled his first obligation to his Abu Dhabi masters by delivering Champions League football next season and in their ambitious plans to take on the world, fuelled by the riches of Sheikh Mansour, this is indeed a milestone.
He did not get over the line without the help of an own goal from Peter Crouch or without a temper tantrum from the substitute Carlos Tevez – which was picked up by the Sky television cameras – but given the pressure on Mancini to claim a place in English football's elite he will be prepared to overlook all that.
Should they win the FA Cup final on Saturday this would be City's perfect week, although a club that knows disaster usually follows hard on the heels of triumph will not be taking anything for granted against Stoke City at Wembley. Best case scenario: City win the cup and claim third place ahead of Arsenal. But even if they accomplish neither they already have the biggest prize in the bank.
At a club that has not won a trophy for 35 years there will be some who argue that Saturday's game is more significant than last night. But for the hard-headed pragmatists of modern football, the Champions League is the only place to be. Certainly City will be taken a lot more seriously than they would have been with another season outside the elite of European football.
Even so, three years on from Sheikh Mansour's acquisition of the club, expectations will not be modest when City prepare to tackle the Champions League next season. This season Tottenham have set high standards for rookies in that competition.
Last night, Harry Redknapp's team were not, as their manager later argued, significantly worse than their opponents but stuck in a rut of just one win in 13 games in all competitions they are in danger of not qualifying for Europe at all next season. If they lose to Liverpool on Sunday then fifth place and a place in the Europa League will look like an impossibility.
Despite the end of season slump, Redknapp has long refused to buy into the theory that this is a disappointing season for Spurs and he does have a point. But without the injured Gareth Bale and with Rafael Van der Vaart a shadow of his early-season self his team lack the cutting edge that once made them stand out in Europe as well as the Premier League.
They lost to an own goal from Crouch, the man who, one year and five days earlier, has scored the goal that denied City Champions League football at the end of last season. Crouch comes from a family of City fans on his mother's side of the family but that will be no consolation for the bitter irony of last night.
It was not an exceptional display from City, for whom Edin Dzeko contributed a painfully bad performance in attack. Mancini said later that Tevez's short substitute's cameo does not mean he is fit enough to start on Saturday. The City manager claimed not to have heard the angry outburst in his direction from the Argentine while he warmed up on the touchline in the second half.
Already without Bale, Benoît Assou-Ekotto and Tom Huddlestone among others, Redknapp's first choice goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes suffered a shoulder injury in training on Monday and was eventually sent home from the airport before Spurs' flight north yesterday. Given Gomes' mistakes of late that may not have been such a blow.
For the second consecutive game, Redknapp was forced to deploy the midfielder Danny Rose at left-back but his team were far from outplayed. In fact they had much the better of it in the first half but were undone by Crouch's own goal, turned in from Adam Johnson's cross after the City winger exchanged passes with James Milner from a short corner.
Modric missed the best chance for Spurs in the first half when Aaron Lennon cut the ball back on 28 minutes and the Croatian was so close with his shot that some of the Spurs staff were off the bench in celebration. In the first minute of the second half Joe Hart saved brilliantly low to his left when Steven Pienaar headed down Lennon's cross from the right.
If Crouch was having a bad night then, at the other end, Dzeko was certainly no better and arguably a lot worse. He was given a great chance to score by David Silva in the 11th minute when the midfielder cut the ball back to him but the £27m man hit his shot straight at Carlo Cudicini.
The Bosnian is an impressive size but against a partnership as accomplished as that of William Gallas and Michael Dawson it takes more than just a physical presence to have an effect. It would be pushing it to say that Dzeko showed last night he is any closer to adapting to the demands the English game makes on players.
A stray elbow from Crouch cracked the nose of Pablo Zabaleta who had to be replaced and with 25 minutes to play, Mancini sent on Patrick Vieira to shore up his midfield. Gallas cleared off the line from Yaya Touré with three minutes left and Tevez even had a run at goal late on.
If Redknapp has a blind spot then it is surely his continued faith in Van der Vaart, and his refusal to go with Crouch and Jermain Defoe as a pair in attack. In injury time, Micah Richards had to get a good block in on Vedran Corluka's near-post cross before Defoe, by then on as a substitute, reached it.
It has not gone according to plan for Spurs, who have taken three points from the five games they have played since their Champions League quarter-final second-leg defeat to Real Madrid on 13 April. City, on the other hand, are on track. They have reached the promised land of Champions League football but, as Spurs can attest, staying there is just as hard.
Man of the match: Silva.
Match rating: 6/10.
Referee: M Dean (Wirrall).
Attendance: 47,029.
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