There was a moment midway through the first half when Kevin De Bruyne played a ball towards Phil Foden with such pace that only a perfect moment of control had any hope of making it stick. The ball stuck.
Foden, not long turned 20, cushioned the ball on his left instep without breaking stride. Then, he turned back on to that favoured foot and unleashed a shot on goal. It was blocked and it needed to be.
This was a night when Manchester City’s passage into the last eight of the Champions League was eased by some astonishingly poor Real Madrid defending. Rarely have the 13-times champions of Europe been as compliant as this.
Nevertheless, Foden’s inclusion in Pep Guardiola’s City team felt like a moment in time. This was by far the biggest game of City’s season and in order to accommodate Foden, Guardiola left some stellar talent on the bench.
Having already signed two players ahead of the 2020-21 campaign, Guardiola will oversee a City team that will look a little different and it is clear that Foden will be part of it.
As such, the debate is now over. The question of if and when Foden, of Stockport, would prove good enough to command a place in Guardiola’s team is now redundant. Foden’s time is now, at last.
His rise to prominence since the restart of the football season in June has been marked. Some may ask what has changed. It doesn’t seem that long ago that he was short on playing minutes.
As he said himself previously, a significant part of the battle has been played out in his own head. Foden idolises some of those who have stood in his way. Players such as De Bruyne and David Silva have not just been squad mates but, to him at least, modern City legends.
It’s sweet and points to a part of Foden’s nature that remains a little callow. But equally it no longer appears to be a barrier. Here, he was in the team and Silva wasn’t. His partnership with De Bruyne, meanwhile, is one that is blossoming.
The other change is another that has long been signalled. It was at the start of last year that the coach who discovered and first nurtured Foden predicted that the only facet of play standing between the young player and real progress was the physical development and maturity that would bring with it a change of pace.
‘When that arrives he will start to look like a young Lionel Messi,’ said Jim Cassell, City’s former academy head.
There was a little bit of hyperbole about that statement. Messi’s name should not be bandied about lightly simply because there may well never be another like him.
Nevertheless, the change that Cassell talked about has now arrived. Foden is now able to push the ball out in front of him and use his upper body strength and speed over 10 yards to make headway. Paul Gascoigne used to do this before his knee injury held him back. Perhaps that would be a more appropriate comparison.
Before this game, Foden’s name on the team sheet felt a little like a jolt of lightning. Eden Hazard was not expected to start for Real but it was a surprise to see Foden also. It felt like a statement from City coach Pep Guardiola and the manner in which Foden was deployed said much of his natural game intelligence.
In the early moments, he was playing through the middle — in that position they irritatingly call a false nine — with Gabriel Jesus on the left. Then, soon after, Foden was found deep in his own half picking up possession and starting play.
To ask a player with freedom — to ask him to find his own way to influence a game — points to trust and also maturity. It feels significant.
Foden is not only bright enough to do this, he can also play off both feet. Into the second half, Foden was eased out to the right and that suited him too. Indeed twice during that period of the game, he was involved in moves that could have led to a second City goal. On both occasions Sterling could not provide a sufficient final touch.
On the whole this was a strange game. For sure, it was not the game we thought. Real — champions of Spain — seemed to struggle to rise to the occasion. They looked dangerous for the 10 minutes after Karim Benzema equalised in the first half but Real never looked secure enough in their own half to have more than a fleeting chance of going through.
Foden’s night was over when Bernardo Silva replaced him with 20 minutes or so remaining and it was heartening to note that he looked vaguely irritated by that. Another good sign.
As City move in to a shoot out in Lisbon next week, Foden will be front and central.