IT FEELS very different from a Uefa Cup qualifying round against FC Midtjylland; or the time Manchester City were drawn to play EB Streymur, from a village in the Faroe Islands, and their supporters hired a fishing trawler for the journey.

A trip to Bayern Munich, under the floodlights of the Allianz Arena, represents something far removed from City’s previous European excursions – such as the time they went to Belgium to play Sporting Lokeren and the press box was a double-decker bus parked behind one of the goals; or that grim night in Poland when City went out of the Uefa Cup to Groclin Grodzisk in a remote agricultural town with a population of 13,000.

City had qualified that year via the fair-play route. As Kevin Keegan, their manager at the time, put it: “We got in through the back door and we’re leaving through the back door.”

The modern-day City feel like a different beast entirely, arriving in Germany exuding the kind of confidence that could make one temporarily forget this will be only their second appearance in the Champions League. The manager, Roberto Mancini, talked of beating Bayern, the four-time winners, as though he expected nothing else.

“Our lives have changed,” Mancini said. “Sometimes, in football, life can change. We, too, are a top club now.”

Mancini talked of it being a “long journey” but it is probably only the club’s supporters and, behind the scenes, the survivors of previous regimes’ loyal staff such as the former secretary and now life-president Bernard Halford, with almost 40 years’ service – who fully understand the wild and eccentric route that has brought the club to this point.

A Champions League tie against the mighty Bayern represents one of the high points. For the lows, look no further than the greasy slope that took them into what used to be known as the old Third Division.

Mancini was speaking 13 years to the day that City drew 2-2 at Northampton Town.

Many of the Mancunians, beerily making the most out of Oktoberfest here, could have been found in the alehouses around Moss Rose, Sincil Bank and Bootham Crescent 13 years ago. Macclesfield was the destination, rather than Munich.

The challenge ahead of Mancini’s team is a formidable one. Bayern are top of the Bundesliga, with six wins from their opening seven league fixtures. They have scored 21 goals and conceded only one and, when it comes to the Champions League, this will be their 151st game, compared with City’s two. Their goalkeeper, Manuel Neuer, has not conceded a goal for 838 minutes and there is a growing sense in Germany that Jupp Heynckes is building something special.

“Barcelona are a great team but we are getting close,” Franck Ribery, their French attacker, said. “I have never seen a Bayern team as strong as the one we have now. If we carry on playing the way we are, nobody can stop us.”

Except Mancini belongs to a new era at City where they bow to nobody and any David-versus-Goliath inferiority they might once have felt has subsided. They are here, according to their manager, with one purpose: to win.

“We are not a small team any more. We are a good team and we can play against Munich without a problem. We have a lot of respect for them . . . But we want to do a good job. This is a game we must win. Why not? We are not here to lose the game. We are here to win.”

It was a bold speech from Mancini, in keeping with his declaration after the 1-1 draw with Napoli that City would come to Germany and put themselves in a position of command in Group A. If so, it would be the night City announce their presence on Europe’s top table. But Bayern are oozing confidence, too.

Jerome Boateng, the Germany international signed from City in the summer, spoke of his former club lacking some of Bayern’s qualities. “They didn’t have the same sense of togetherness (as Bayern),” he said. “They are strong, technically and physically. But I don’t see them in the final because there are better teams. We are better, for one.”

Ribery’s take on City was a more complimentary one. “It is going to be a real challenge for us,” he said. “From what I have seen so far this season Manchester City are currently on a par with Manchester United and that says enough really. They are a top European team.”

City’s presence in Bavaria reminds us how far they have come under the immense wealth of the Abu Dhabi royal family. Four days before the takeover they played Midtjylland, from the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, in the Uefa Cup and scraped through on penalties. Mancini is now talking freely of beating one of the great European superpowers.

“This is only our second time in the Champions League but, if we want to get to the top and be like Bayern Munich, with their history, we have to work very hard. We were nervous (against Napoli) because it was our first match and we wanted to win so much the pressure can lead to mistakes. It will be different here. It will be a tough game but I am sure we can win.”

City officials are to lay a wreath at the memorial to the 1958 Munich air disaster today. A team of City delegates are to make the gesture at the memorial stone in the Manchesterplatz.