Tonight is the night when Pep Guardiola learns if his big gamble paid off.
For one night only, the Man City manager compromised the footballing principles he holds so dear.
Frankly, he went a little bit Jose Mourinho.
Pragmatism was the name of the game in last week’s Champions League quarter-final first leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium - when a 1-0 defeat left Guardiola facing uncomfortable questions about his strategy and in danger of crashing out of the competition he cherishes more than any other tonight.
And if he does, he knows the criticism will be deafening.
Some 24 hours after a Lionel Messi masterclass secured Barcelona’s place in the last four, the question will resurface as to whether Guardiola will ever conquer Europe without the brilliant Argentine.
Ahead of Spurs’ visit to the Etihad, the Catalan once again found himself defending his record at Bayern Munich, where he won seven trophies in three years, but failed to reach a Champions League final.
“I know at Bayern Munich, like a big club, after three seasons winning absolutely everything apart from the Champions League, was a big failure, but what can I say?” he said with a healthy dose of irony. “I accept that. I know that. I have to live with that.”
Yet Guardiola knows the same criticisms will be levelled against him if City fail to overturn a one-goal deficit against Spurs, which would see him go out at the quarter-final stage for a second successive season.
In his first year in English football, it was last 16 against a Kylian Mbappe-inspired Monaco.
The worrying trend is that City are making a habit of falling short against teams they are expected to beat.
Liverpool are pushing Guardiola’s side all the way in the race for the Premier League title this season – but last year they finished a full 25 points adrift of the champions.
Still they ended their hopes in Europe - and the scars of that 5-1 aggregate defeat were evident in City's inhibited approach to last week’s tie with Spurs.
Guardiola’s team were blown away in the space of 19 first half minutes at Anfield when they conceded three goals.
It echoed similar meltdowns for his Bayern side against Real Madrid and Barca.
On this occasion he was determined to ensure the tie was still alive by the time Mauricio Pochettino brought his team to Manchester.
So concerned was Guardiola with the prospect of City throwing too much caution to the wind that he opted to hold off from throwing on game-changing players like Kevin De Bruyne and Leroy Sane until the late stages, so as not to give the wrong impression to those on the pitch.
He didn’t want them to take too many chances - even when 1-0 down.
The feeling was that this tie could be salvaged on home soil – and a starting XI that included two holding midfielders was evidence of his lack of ambition in the first leg.
It was a job of containment, which worked well until Fabian Delph switched off, allowing Heung-Min Son to score the only goal of the match.
A 1-0 score-line is far from insurmountable – but should Spurs score an away goal then Guardiola’s gamble will be seriously put to the test.
The prospect of a semi-final against Ajax awaits the winner, which looks like a far less daunting than Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus.
Arguably Guardiola has never had a better chance of reaching a final since his two triumphs with Barca in 2009 and 2011.
But while his first leg strategy against Spurs points to the personal pressure he places on himself to deliver club football’s biggest prize to City – outwardly he continues to talk down its importance. "I know people say I came here to win the Champions League,” he added. “I didn’t come here to win the Champions League, honestly.
"I came here to play with my team the way we are playing the last 20 months. That is what I came here for, to play the way I want to play. And of course I want the Champions League.”
Notably, Guardiola has urged City fans to prove just how much they want to win it, given their uneasy relationship with Uefa, which prompts ritual jeers whenever the Champions League anthem is played.
“We need them in our bad moments, at this stage we cannot go through,” he said. “I’m really curious to how our fans will be.
“I want to see that they want to get to the semi-finals, not just the players, the fans too. I want to see that.”
