I t was not so long ago that members of the Bayern Munich hierarchy reacted to Manchester City's lavish ambition with disdain.

Karl-Heinz Rumminegge, the chairman, and Uli Hoeness, the president, talked scathingly of City’s spending and the notion that it would be allowed under Uefa’s new financial fair play initiative. “Millions have been invested there very badly,” Hoeness said two years ago. “The players can do absolutely nothing, even though they were very expensive.”

The criticism managed to be scornful while also revealing a sense of alarm. Bayern have never been reticent about exploiting their own status as the richest club in Germany, but the limitless wealth of Sheikh Mansour, the City owner, agitated them.

Suddenly, even the grandest clubs in Europe felt threatened by the possibilities open to a club that was once little more than an example of the angst that can grip a team on its downfall.

After three years of brisk progress (Mansour bought the club in September 2008), City have now moved into the upper tier of European football. This is their first Champions League campaign, and so every tie becomes a challenge to their status; City are confronted with the need to prove that having bought their way to the top of the game, they can also survive there.

Clubs such as Bayern, Manchester United, and Arsenal act as though City are arrivistes, that somehow their spending power is not equal to their own prestigious histories. Yet the Champions League is a competition in which money is a defining factor; City only have more, and have taken less time to accumulate it.

For Roberto Mancini, the City manager, this season is about delivering on the promise of those resources, and rising above the grouching.

At the Allianz Arena tonight, City face a Bayern side that has been performing with an ominous command. Under Jupp Heynckes, they lost their opening league match of the season, but have won all nine subsequent games, all without conceding a goal.

Since 1996, Bayern have never gone two consecutive seasons without winning the Bundesliga and, having lost out to Borussia Dortmund last term, there is already a sense of intimidation about their form.

City were outplayed by United in the Community Shield, and since then the only two leading teams they have played are Tottenham Hotspur -- who were beaten 5-1 -- and Napoli, who held City 1-1. That last game was City’s first in the Champions League and Mancini spoke afterwards about his players being “nervous”; yet five of the starting line-up, and three of the substitutes, had played in the competition before.

There has always been a sense of Mancini -- a manager whose inclination is to be cautious and autocratic -- trying to subdue expectations. He has sought gradual progress, a kind of prudence, with his comments and his tactics.

Under the Italian, City have been defensive and, occasionally, dour-minded, finishing fifth then third in the past two seasons, although they are currently second behind United in the Barclays Premier League.

He is still instinctively conservative -- when Mario Balotelli ran to the bench to celebrate the opening goal against Everton last Saturday, Mancini responded by whispering tactical instructions into his ear -- but the manager has finally allowed some free-spirited nature into his side.

The signings of Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri brought the ingenuity, that air of the unpredictable, that lifts a side beyond the cold efficiency of a well-drilled style.

With Edin Dzeko providing a clinical touch up front, and David Silva establishing himself as a playmaker of almost irrepressible invention, City are formidable. The encounter with Bayern will be a measure of their sophistication, but then the same can be said for the German side.

Heynckes has restored some order to a dressing room that was never wholly at ease under Louis van Gaal, and he has been rewarded by the resurgence of Franck Ribery, Mario Gomez and Thomas Mueller. Bastian Schweinsteiger also remains reliably uncompromising in midfield and Manuel Neuer has retained his prowess in goal since joining from Schalke 04.

The intrigue lies in how the two sides cope with each other, but also how bold City are prepared to be. Mancini will surely implement a gameplan that will limit Bayern’s attacking options -- Carlos Tevez may play alone up front, to forage around and harass the home defenders -- but deploying his attacking talent with a free rein might better limit Bayern’s approach.

Yet that is a measure of the manager’s temperament rather than the team’s potential; City can still grow into the competition, but a victory in Germany would make a significant point about their status.

The two clubs argued over the transfer of Jerome Boateng from Manchester to Munich during the summer, and there remains an air of drama to both. Bayern are not quite as susceptible to the kind of headlines that once earned them the nickname FC Hollywood, but they are still the focus of Germany’s attention.

City cannot escape their own newsworthiness, with Garry Cook having stepped down as chief executive recently, and Kolo Toure returning from a drugs ban.

Yet where once there were stories about training ground fights and personality clashes, the latest revelation was about the squad asking to be allowed to play music in the dressing room before games (which they first did before the FA Cup semi-final win over Manchester United last season).

City are still a project, but there are fewer compromises in the team now, and a greater range of accomplished talent; it is possible to see what they might soon become: a side of gifted individuals drawn together by the lure of great wealth but also by the notion of transforming a club from its modest history to a time of glory.

The prospect irks the likes of Bayern, but only because it limits their own chances of triumphing. City can come of age this season, and the display in the Allianz Arena tonight will reveal how ready they are to move fearlessly and decisively among the elite.