This felt like a big game for Jack Grealish. One of many this season.
Forced out of the Manchester City picture this term, Pep Guardiola has put his regular spot on the bench down to the good form of others. Yet he's also chosen his moments to publicly challenge Grealish to provide more when he does play, and for too often he hasn't responded.
Yes, Savinho and Jeremy Doku have played because they've been better. But they've been better in part because Grealish hasn't been very good.
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His goal in the last round of the FA Cup vs Salford was his first in a year and he barely celebrated as a result. There was understandably more of a reaction at PSG but he couldn't back up either strike and was back to needing a performance against Leyton Orient to prove himself again.
He had been benched for the six City games between Salford and Leyton Orient, and hasn't started a Premier League game since before Christmas - overlooked in 10 of the 12 games before this one. There were no goals at Orient but he got two assists and that shouldn't go unnoticed by Guardiola.
Grealish was jeered by the home fans at Brisbane Road. In fairness, when isn't he? And it quickly became clear that he was not going to use the lower league opponents to desperately get a goal.
He cut inside a few times and let fly, but was more keen to follow Guardiola's instructions to keep the shape, keep the ball and keep Orient under pressure. That was probably for the best, despite the risk of more criticism from outside the club for playing in a restricted manner.
Slowly, he got his rewards. Coming short for a corner, he got Omar Marmoush's attention and teed up Rico Lewis to fire in an equaliser via Abdukodir Khusanov's back. And when Kevin De Bruyne came on he sent a wonderful ball round the back of the defence with the outside of his boot for the run of the Belgian to win the game.
It is the kind of end product that Guardiola has been begging for, mixed with the careful possession he used to be relied upon for. But next up he will face European Champions Real Madrid, who are a step up from Leyton Orient - as good as Orient were for a cup tie. Guardiola played Grealish and rested Phil Foden, De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva for a reason.
He will have to prove to the manager that a good performance against a League One side is enough to start in the Champions League ahead of those rested players.
It might take some more consistency to return to that position of regular starter - but he has to start somewhere. Maybe that somewhere was East London and that lovely ball to De Bruyne that spared City's blushes. A moment of quality to unlock Orient, and perhaps his season too.
