Manchester City and Bayern Munich was the football equivalent of sticking Amir Khan in the same ring as Floyd Mayweather.

As if that would ever happen!

If Bayern were the magicians, then City’s role was that of the ditzy assistant in the leotard getting sawn in half; a case of Arjen Robben’s Paul Daniels to Joe Hart’s Debbie McGee.

Munich were magnificent and mesmerising. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea and the rest cannot hope to compete with more performances like that.

And this was the same Man City who had delivered an equally dismissive hatchet job on neighbours United just the other week. Out-sung off the pitch, out-played on it, Wednesday was a chastening night for the Premier League.

But that’s what makes the Champions League such compelling viewing – well, that and Mario Balotelli.

For all the great goals and skills on display, the Italian pantomime villain stole the show for me with the last-gasp equaliser for Milan against Ajax.

He won the penalty with some blatant play-acting at a corner, tugging his marker’s shirt and then spinning the pair of them round so it appeared that he had been shoved to the floor.

As the Amsterdam ArenA descended into uproar, Balotelli stood motionless hands on hips waiting to take the spot-kick.

Duly slotted away, he celebrated in that familiar pose with a finger on his lips to “shush” all four corners of the stadium.

The final whistle promptly blew, which sparked more angry reaction from the outraged hosts.

An Ajax scrum surrounded the referee while the villain of the piece simply shrugged his shoulders and strolled away to the tunnel with the carefree air of a Sunday afternoon stroll.

Roll on match day three.