Welcome to the Champions League, Manchester City.
Roberto Mancini's side is learning the hard way that Europe's elite club competition is a whole new level after a double from Mario Gomez gave Bayern Munich a 2-0 win at the Allianz Arena.
The German striker scored twice within the last eight minutes of the first half to stun City who had competed in the early stages of a contest which Jupp Heynckes's side controlled once it was in front.
The early period of the first half was an example of back and forth sparring from both sides. City continued to edge the even battle when a run from Micah Richards set up Edin Dzeko, whose shot was directed at Manuel Neuer between the Bayern posts.
Bastian Schweinsteiger could have opened the scoring for Munich on two occasions. The first was a result of nifty work with Ribery which ended unluckily and the second was simply a horrendous miss. Bayern caught City in possession and quick as a flash, Thomas Muller’s efforts allowed him to stroke the ball to Schweinsteiger who, from seven yards, spooned it over the bar.
Bayern finally opened the scoring after an excellent double save by Joe Hart denied Ribery and Muller, before Gomez smashed the ball home on the second rebound and Bayern took a deserved lead after controlling the latter part of the half.
With Hart screaming at his errant defense, City conceded almost immediately when more poor defending allowed Gomez to drift to the near post from a Muller free kick and convert the rebound after Hart saved Daniel van Buyten's header.
Once the second half begun it appeared that City had run out of ideas. The team which put five past Tottenham and was still unbeaten in domestic football was not in attendance and some interesting substitutions from Mancini further reduced the chances of a comeback.
After 55 minutes the effective Edin Dzeko was replaced by Nigel de Jong and the Bosnian was furious to be removed from action and he made sure that his manager was aware of this as anger was rife on the City bench with Carlos Tevez joining in the arguments.
With Tevez on the bench the decision to bring on Alexsander Kolarov and James Milner was an odd move as City was searching for a way back into the game.
After two games City has one point and qualification for the next stage is looking a bigger task than many thought it would be.
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