Man City 'turn fairytale into reality' as UEFA watches on nervously

There wasn't a huge amount of enthusiasm from the first week of UEFA's shiny new competition.

Rodri, fresh from winning the best player at the European Championship, used a press conference before Manchester City's opening game with Inter to suggest that players were close to striking over the increasingly unreasonable demands on their bodies. Not long after that, he suffered a cruciate ligament injury that has already ended his campaign.

City's match, a re-run of the 2023 final, was an even contest but lacking in the jeopardy that the new revamped competition is meant to bring. Other high profile matches such as Atalanta vs Arsenal were similar, while elsewhere Bayern thrashed Dinamo Zagreb 9-2 in one of the biggest mismatches.

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So it continued this week. City slapped Slovan Bratislava for four in what could easily have been double, Dortmund beat Celtic 7-1, Inter won by four and Barcelona won by five.

UEFA have promised more jeopardy from the new format, yet the final round in January feels like a long way away with little sign that the drama will deliver. Will the first eight spots be decided by how much the biggest clubs can batter everybody else by?

Quite possibly, but spending a few days in Bratislava was to see the competition through the eyes of a club a world away from a superclub. Slovan are in the group stage for the first time in their history, and are the first Slovakian team there for 14 years.

In their press conference before the game, the achievement was talked about not just in terms of their country but also neighbouring ones such as Czech Republic with their success transcending their borders. Not only did they win their domestic league last year (for the sixth time in a row) but they also beat four opponents in qualifying rounds beginning on July 10 to earn the right to enter the main draw.

As much as Pep Guardiola was a bit weirded out by the red carpet rolled out for him and his players, it wasn't easy to see why coach Vladimir Weiss had described the hosting of the Blues as a fantasy turned reality. They were genuinely thrilled to have the chance to go up against City.

National radio described the game as a 'fiesta for Slovakian football' while Tuesday's newspaper called it 'the greatest holiday of all'. Plenty of locals flocked to both the Under-19s game in the afternoon and the main event in the evening wearing some City merchandise as they witnessed something they would never see: Erling Haaland and his team in front of their very eyes.

There were two light shows, two versions of Freed from Desire, a rousing Slovan anthem, and a belting if slightly random tifo at the beginning of the match depicting Beth Harmon from the Netflix chess drama The Queen's gambit. City players were greeted with boos when they came out to warm up and the fans and players never stopped trying all evening despite the gulf in quality on the pitch.

There may come a time when these clubs grow tired of being cannon fodder or the bigger clubs push UEFA for more changes that tilts European football closer to a Super League. Tuesday night in Slovakia could not have been further than that though as Slovan soaked up every minute of a day they had only ever dreamed would come.

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