Manchester City 2-1 Aston Villa: Matheus Nunes' late winner puts hosts on course for Champions League qualification after Marcus Rashford came back to haunt his old rivals

There was an Aston Villa supporter on social media on Tuesday morning saying that the reaction to that Ilkay Gundogan goal in 2022 was the loudest he’d ever heard a football stadium.

This Matheus Nunes winner, deep into stoppage time and owing to wonder wing play by Jeremy Doku, might not have prompted those same decibel levels but its importance is monumental for Manchester City.

It might go down as one of those iconic moments. That rubbish season still having its big hurrah, City now in the box seat to qualify for a 15th consecutive Champions League campaign. Aston Villa, meanwhile, nervously hoping results elsewhere help them out.

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Pep Guardiola was emotional at Everton on Saturday and the same here, big bear hugs for Rodri on the touchline after an unlikely hero in Nunes sorted this for them. Nunes had spent all evening as a hinderance before this intervention.

Some fury, more tension. Guardiola and Unai Emery were a pair of skittish cats, set off by any unexpected noise or tackle. Villa pushed, City pressed. Early goalscorer Bernardo Silva rolled around in the name of gamesmanship after being grazed by a stud. Marcus Rashford, to a cacophony of jeers, engineered an equaliser. Lucas Digne nicked Kevin De Bruyne’s big toe and the arms of thousands were thrown in unison.

Absorbing in a way Premier League games generally aren’t anymore, two truly top teams feeling each other out by going forward. There was a bite, an underlying mild aggravation.

Given the backdrop of activism around east Manchester at the moment, the occasion played out exactly how the leaders of fan groups disenchanted by City’s ticketing policies had hoped. 

They protested last night but not inside the ground, refusing to distract from the team’s crucial fixture in their bid to reach a competition many of those demonstrating will complain about being priced out of anyway.

The irony of that is a little comedic but the overall cause still worthwhile. The protests are not just about the escalating costs of watching City – and many others of their ilk – but of the general mood around your ‘average’ fan.

It cost a minimum £71 for an adult to watch this match. Irrespective of how good the spectacle was, that is wrong and the protests outside the Colin Bell Stand happening next to holidaymakers taking pictures on a one-off visit illustrated feelings towards a Hollywoodified top flight.

To be fair, some Villa executives – including Monchi – were posing for selfies out on the pitch long before kick off so maybe it was a match up worthy of photographs.

It didn’t disappoint, Rashford hitting a post within 18 seconds, Silva opening the scoring after seven minutes – the Portuguese’s shot from Omar Marmoush’s cutback only parried into his own goal by Emiliano Martinez. 

The celebration, haring off to the corner flag, was reminiscent of Silva’s crazed reaction to scoring against Real Madrid here in a European semi-final two years ago.

The flow of proceedings was only blunted by VAR, a three-minute check for a penalty when Jacob Ramsey seemed to be clearly felled by the thigh of Ruben Dias. Craig Pawson waved it away, only to stop play much later to check. 

Dias had poked the ball and taken Ramsey with him, the controversial incident shown on the big screen – someone’s wrists will be slapped for that – prompting anger and angst. Rashford, who had charged towards goal in the build-up after picking up a ludicrously poor Nunes stray pass, rolled the penalty past Stefan Ortega.

Nunes, not the most popular member of Guardiola’s squad, did a lot of falling over and misplacing balls at right back. Down that same side, Digne was knocking easy passes out for corners as City began to force more and more of them.

De Bruyne somehow found James McAtee, whose lob dropped agonisingly wide, Youri Tielemans ghosted by three markers. There remained that edge, that lingering sense of imminent disaster at both ends. Emery and his set-piece coach, Austin MacPhee, both pleaded with players to hack opponents down on the counter.

Then the intake of breath when Ortega dashed out to meet a Morgan Rogers pass but never got there, allowing Rashford to skip past. Rashford had, only just, ran it too far and the angle closed a degree too tight.

Ollie Watkins sat watching until 14 minutes to play, admitting that he had been ‘fuming’ with Emery for not giving him enough opportunities in the recent big games, and that cloud will not have shifted. Clearly, the rivalry between he and on-loan Rashford has been noted by those inside the dressing room.

‘The team comes first,’ John McGinn said. ‘The manager has shown he doesn’t care who you are, you have to put personal ambitions to the side.’

Rashford strode off calmly as the boos rang down and this dynamic between the two strikers is something that will doubtless come to a head in the summer. How that resolves itself might have much to do with which continent competition Villa find themselves in. Given Nunes popped up at the back stick to meet Doku’s cross, the answer to that now looks clearer.