Fifty -nine minutes passed, this specific clock started to tap a moment before Omar Marmoush lobed Manchester City in their cheerful way.
Fifty -nine minutes in which City went with Newcastle, by scoring their first three of four and then managing the game in a way that had felt like history.
Fifty-nine minutes disappeared without Nico Gonzalez who once lost on a Premier League debut that ended with Pep Guardiola who described him as a mini-Rodri.
No lost pass in almost an hour – from minute 18, the middle hour of an afternoon town could take on exactly 60 seconds every 60 seconds. Reversing, sideways, piercing the last third without ever going in. All at his own pace. Never rushed, confused or breaking sweat.
Gonzalez had the ball for 10 percent of the entire game, one that will be reminded for Marmoush's Hattrick, but also belonged to a Spaniard who wanted to sign the city for the first time nine years ago. He tried two long steps all games and never tried to hit Erling Haaland.
His touches reached 112, a total of 27 more than the second place Ilkay Gundogan.
Short, sharp, no mess. This was the check, it was insured, unusual for a new signing of Guardiola, many of whom need 12 months to acclimatize instead of a quarter of a FA -crawling at Leyton Orient – and perhaps even longer for tactical direction to Haaland starting. It was water meeting water.
Guardiola said a few days ago that the city is nowadays the most vulnerable, which was an amazingly frank recognition of someone who prefers to do his defense with the ball instead of without.
But it is clear and something that the city manager cannot avoid that their mistakes in offering opportunities for opponents have not been positional. They literally have gifted opportunities, transferred with an arc, as proven last Tuesday when Real Madrid helped himself with a well -known drama. Take the ball here. No, you will continue.
Gonzalez in that team last week does not certainly change the general result, but it offers more protection in transition. It gives a defensive inadequate city an extra layer of hope.
The heavy knock he had brought down in Orient meant that he did not play a part, the excellent John Stones that was needed in midfield with a tired couple from Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva. City had more of the ball, but the feeling never had that that part of their pitch was really theirs.
There can be no conceivable reason for the 23-year-old not to start on Wednesday in the Bernabeu for what mission is impossible. Impossible, unlikely, whatever – and although Guardiola will not think about what the next season looks like at the moment, Gonzalez can give Real a glimpse of how they could appear from their lowest EB in years as a team.
Only one game and Newcastle were bad, never largely threatening during the break.
However, the 59 minutes are not. The century of completed passes does not lie, one Stat provider says 100, another 98. Anyway, they are good grades. The way Gonzalez, £ 50 million from Porto, used his frame to illuminate Joe Willock and Tino Livramento from counters – arms unnaturally high, elbows in a somewhat ugly, rodri style – not lying.
The sample size is small, but it is still an encouraging one. He is the first city player to try 100 passes throughout the season, of which 10 or more successfully hit the last third with accuracy above 95 percent. Very starts to exist.
And that should offer excitement, wonder what midfield looks like as soon as Rodri returns, since Gonzalez can work further ahead.
Attacking tendencies come from his father, Guardiola's ex-Spain teammate Fran, a cultivated left wing player who spent his entire career at Deportivo La Coruna.
A man who scored the crucial winning goal against AC Milan to take the enchanting Deportivo team of 2004 including Diego Tristan and Juan Carlos Valeron-in an unlikely and romantic semi-final of the Champions League. Unfortunately for Fran, Jose Mourinho was waiting with its own fairy tale in Porto.
Mourinho and Porto: Funny how football links things like that.
Gonzalez, a product from La Masia in Barcelona and whose Guardiola was aware of coaching in Bayern Munich, was then only a toddler and almost came to the city at 14 when Fran the youngsters under 18 coached. Later in the development of the young person there were also discussions. “But we had Fernandinho and Rodri,” said Guardiola.
Now it is Gonzalez and Rodri. Well not completely now, but fast enough.
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