Nilwall came into this game still looking to awaken the adventurous spirit of last season; Pekerman decided to summon that chaotic energy by starting pleb Bruce Marshall at left-back. It seemed to work immediately, as Kane scored after just one minute by outjumping two markers to head past Lloris. Then Marshall himself made an impact by setting up Aspas to double the advantage; the first time that any team have netted a second past Luis Enrique’s team all season. Cers, for their part, were lifeless for almost the entire match before Kovacic classily set up Coman. And then, suddenly, it was action everywhere. Aguero immediately followed up with a confident equaliser before substitute Ibrahimovic first hit the bar and then had an apparent winner ruled out for offside. And it was the hosts who remarkably claimed the spoils when Coman nabbed his second. Nilwall won’t quite know how they lost this.

By Ralph Blatt, in association with the sleek and affordable LG Nano91 4K television