Raheem Sterling struck a late winner as Manchester City secured top spot in Champions League Group F with a 1-0 win over Feyenoord.
The England international clipped home his 11th goal of the season after 88 minutes at the Etihad Stadium to extend City's club-record winning run to 17 matches in all competitions.
It had otherwise been a rare flat performance from City – by recent standards at least – but Napoli's convincing victory over Shakhtar Donestsk in the other group game meant they were always in control of their destiny.
Phil Foden was introduced from the bench for his City debut and looked sharp but the final word went to Sterling as he raced on to a Ilkay Gundogan pass and lifted over Brad Jones for a late winner.
City are 9/2 second-favourites with Sky Bet to win the Champions League.
That behind market leaders PSG at 7/2.
Post-match reaction
Pep Guardiola admitted his Manchester City side were below their best.
He said: "A win is better than not. We are going to analyse the performance - the first half we could do better - but sometimes it is difficult having won lots of games and being already qualified. We didn't have the right tension to play but that is normal.
"We are still winning and we made a fantastic goal, from Raz after an excellent pass from (Ilkay) Gundogan."
Raheem Sterling admitted that winning ugly is sometimes a necessity.
He told BT Sport/ESPN Live: "What we've shown this season - no matter what competition it is - if it's Champions League, Premier League, cup games, we've got the mentality that we want to win and even if it's sometimes ugly, we just try to make sure we get the three points and the win."
The goal was England midfielder Sterling's 11th of the season in all competitions and he said he was impressed by the Dutch side's battling qualities.
He added: "It's always good to score but the most important thing is to win.
"They kept really solid. I think today at times we were a bit slow on the ball. I think we could have played a bit quicker.
"There was some good play at the end but credit to them, they dug in deep and kept in the game for as long as possible."
Feyenoord, with no points, now cannot climb off the bottom of the group but manager Giovanni van Bronckhorst was pleased with the performance.
He said: "To concede a goal in the 88th minute was a bit harsh but you could also see the quality of the City squad.
"I think we deserved more today - we played a good game and could have scored before the 1-0 but overall I am very proud of the way we performed and represented our club today."
