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The old adage that defense wins championships never quite rings true in a competition like the Champions League whose defending champions in Real Madrid insisted on lifting the crown through the medium of escapology. Yet one cannot quite shake the sense that this might finally be Manchester City's year because of what they have in their defense rather than their frontline.

Once more it was Erling Haaland that carried a Champions League tie away from his opponents and yet he might not have found it so easy to leave Bayern Munich in a spin if Thomas Tuchel's side had not been hammering their heads against a rain-lashed brick wall for the preceding hour. Pep Guardiola's four center backs -- two repurposed to play in wide areas, another given license to step into midfield in possession -- were the true titans on the night, holding firm as the pressure came and setting City on course for yet another semifinal.

As Guardiola himself intimated, there were extended spells in this game where Bayern Munich were the better side. They did not attack with the rapier speed of their Julian Nagelsmann iteration, but before and after Rodri's bolt from the blue shattered the stalemate, they were asking questions of their hosts. Tuchel's men would build up slowly, drawing City over to one side of the pitch before delivering the sweeping pass across the flank, designed to get their wingers isolated against City's makeshift full backs.

At the start of the season, most would have viewed Kingsley Coman against Nathan Ake as a brutal mismatch. That it was. A man who has spent almost a decade humiliating full backs for Paris Saint-Germain, Juventus and Bayern found himself unable to get anything going against Ake, who would wait for the most opportune moment to stick a leg in before sweeping the ball onwards to Jack Grealish, so often close at hand to offer aid in the unlikely event it was required.

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Coman then would take himself across the field to see if he could get any joy against Manuel Akanji. Daylight at last came as halftime approached, nudging the ball towards the byline Bayern's roadrunner was away. Akanji was altogether too willy, however, a telescopic boot blowing up that particular move.

When Bayern did get past City's full backs, they found no quarter from Ruben Dias, a center back who is evidently living some double life as a pilates instructor, such was the flexibility he showed to block Jamal Musiala while doing the splits. For all the guile of Joshua Kimmich, the vibrancy of Coman and the whiplash ball-striking of Leroy Sane, there was scarcely ever an easy way through for Bayern. In the 18 minutes between Rodri's opener and the halftime whistle, Bayern completed 74 passes to City's 32. In the final third, they lead their hosts by 25 passes to eight. They turned that into two shots from outside the box.

Those attacks where Bayern did make it through stood out precisely because they were so infrequent. Ederson's goal was imperiled perhaps just once but he saved sharply from Sane, who City seemed more than willing to give up long shots to. The next time that the Germans advanced the ball quickly enough to sneak in behind the high line they were undone. Dias, backpedalling into his penalty area with Serge Gnabry bearing down on him, betrayed not a scintilla of fear as he slid in to snuff out another failed attack by Bayern. Not for a moment did his authority seem diminished.

Prompted to discuss the mistakes City would go on to force from Bayern, Guardiola was at pains to lavish praise on his own defenders."How they defended, the back four today -- Manu, Ruben, John, Nathan -- it was amazing to defend against these threats," he said. "They were outstanding today."

At the other end of the field, the contrast could scarcely be more vast. Bayern treated the ball like a hot potato under City pressure; it is one thing to draw your opponent onto you but the purpose of that is to play through them, not to panic and hurl the bomb in the direction of another teammate. It is somewhat understandable if moments such as Haaland's near pickpocketing of Sommer happen, sometimes your touch or reactions will let you down as you try to play the right way. What is less forgivable were moments such as Benjamin Pavard's panicked back pass to Sommer in the second half; this was not Bayern trying to play their way to safety but teammates asking of each other, can't someone else do it?

Ultimately it fell to Dayot Upamecano to be Bayern's sacrificial lamb. If he had not made the critical mistake under pressure from Julian Alvarez, someone else would have before too long. This was the very worst of this team, the sort of sloppy, careless play that got Julian Nagelsmann sacked. A 1-0 loss at the Etihad would hardly have been a disastrous result. In the space of six minutes, their chances in this tie were blown up.

Defense then can certainly cost you titles, especially when it is Haaland waiting to pounce on your every misstep. What Bayern discovered is something that will send shivers down the spine of those who have to face City between now and the end of the season. The best scorer in world football might not even be their trump card in this competition. Keep him quiet and City can merely grind you into dust with their imposing, authoritative and downright exceptional defense.