Different year, same stuff.

So spoke Kevin De Bruyne as he tried to sum up Manchester City's disastrous defeat by Lyon last season. As Pep Guardiola echoed this week, the team feels close to breaking their Champions League duck but at the same time manages to get nowhere near.

Perhaps understandably given only two months and six games have happened since, not very much appears to have changed going off the eventful 3-1 win over Porto.

Ruben Dias put his first foot wrong in a City shirt as he passed straight to a Porto player in his own half. If the run and finish from Luis Diaz were excellent, Rodri and Joao Cancelo were also culpable for defending poorly and allowing him to score.

Minutes later, Ederson passed straight to an opposition player on the edge of the City box, with Guardiola's hands shooting up to his head in despair before seeing the shot fired over.

Even with the penalty that Sergio Aguero smashed in to equalise, the manager's shout before it was taken to be aware for the second ball hardly screamed confidence in a team that have missed far too many spot-kicks over the last year.

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Ultimately though the season and this Champions League campaign will not be defined by a forgettable game in an empty stadium.

After nine failed attempts, four under Pep Guardiola, we won't know if this year - in potentially the Catalan's final season at the club - will finally be the year for many, many months. City have looked excellent in group stages and not won the competition so it is not worth worrying about their form here.

Given their chaotic start, and the unpredictable beginning across the league, the Blues have to build up one game at a time. Arsenal was a promising performance with victory ground out and this was not a difficult game.

Not only did Porto arrive as domestic champions but they also had a team that looked to win a refereeing decision at every opportunity and a tremendously vocal support staff off the pitch trying to influence decisions. As games behind closed doors go, it was the feistiest one since the CSKA Moscow farce back in 2014.

Conceding so early to Diaz made things even trickier but the team fought to immediately get back on level terms, with good impetus driving forward from Ilkay Gundogan even if he did accidentally stomp on the goalkeeper's leg as he shot.

As with the Arsenal game, City enjoyed plenty of the ball but created very little for much of the game - they managed just two shots on target from over 70 per cent of possession in the opening hour. That meant they had to keep a side that was dangerous on the counter at bay, which they did to better effect in the second half despite Joao Cancelo having a game to forget at the Bermuda Triangle that is City's left-back position.

City also had to guard against the wild eccentricities (to put it kindly) of the referee, whose decision-making more often than not defied conventional logic. Three home players were booked in the first half and Eric Garcia joined them after the break for the crime of kicking a ball against somebody. The theatrics of the Porto players and their support from the stands probably didn't help.

The selection of Garcia was possibly the most revealing thing about a line-up that included another start for Aguero on his return from a long lay-off.

It proved considerably unpopular among the fanbase given the player has told the club he will not be renewing his contract and would already be at Barcelona if he had his chance. Yet City were adamant both that they wouldn't be shortchanged over the teenager and that he could still do a job for them if they didn't get the right price. Guardiola started the defender in the quarter-final against Lyon in August when he knew he wanted to leave, and started him here.

A penny for John Stones's thoughts, having battled to stay at the club only to find himself behind a youngster that would rather be elsewhere. However, Guardiola has always picked the XI for the occasion and especially with a depleted squad - and with Nathan Ake adding to their injury list, albeit with a minor issue - he saw no problem in using Garcia.

Strong teams based on specific opponents has always been the manager's mantra though from Burton to Barcelona and he will not be affected by any concerns from outside.

It was Gundogan, making his first start of the campaign after missing the opening fixtures with Covid-19, that made the difference as his free-kick arced perfectly over the wall and into the net to put City into the lead for the first time in the 65th minute.

Having brought him and Aguero off three minutes later, Guardiola did not have to wait long for his two substitutes to make the game safe. Ferran Torres exchanged passes with Phil Foden before taking a touch in the box and firing an unstoppable effort past Agustin Marchesin.

Those cameos will give the manager encouragement as he prepares his team for West Ham at the weekend.

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Whether those defensive errors and inefficiency in attack will cost them their dream of Champions League glory again is far less important right now than building up the confidence and rhythm of a team that has had an extremely difficult start.

City will be especially glad that they do not have to play Porto every week given all the melodrama that the visitors bring to every second of the game, but they will also be happy with the outcome.

They got through without a sending off, without lots of injuries, and with a win that gives them three points to kick-start their group effort and more belief to take into their next matches.

Maybe stuff can be different this year, but for now it isn't important.