For 55 minutes, Sunderland looked like they were on their way to a first trophy in 42 years, frustrating, and outthinking Manchester City in the Capital One Cup final to great effect at Wembley.
But then, City do not have all those high-earning world-class players in their lineup for no reason.
First stepped Yaya Toure, to fire a nonchalant - for him - stunner from 30 yards, with Samir I-left-Arsenal-to-win-trophies Nasri, curling an equally brilliant strike with the outside of his right foot to put City from 1-0 down to 2-1 up in the space of a minute.
"It was unbelievable," Toure told Sky Sports. "We needed to win today, it was very important. Sunderland made it difficult for us in the first half. It's unbelievable and we deserve it. The final is only one game, you need to enjoy it, and today we showed we have a great team."
Those two quickfire goals punctured Sunderland's hearts, and Jesus Navas added the gloss for City in the final minute to complete a thoroughly satisfying day for Manuel Pellegrini's men, after it had seemed like going all wrong following a brilliant finish from Fabio Borini in the first half.
"We're terribly disappointed," Sunderland defender John O'Shea said. "We started the game exactly how we wanted to. We counter-attacked great, scored a fantastic goal.
"They've scored a great goal to get back into it. He stuck it in the top corner from 30 yards out and we lost a bit of organisation for a few minutes and it cost us the second goal. City finished very strong. We have a huge test for the rest of the season and we have to pick ourselves up quickly and I'm sure we will."
Goalscorer Nasri was understandably over the moon after helping City to the title, and the former Arsenal midfielder believes this team is capable of winning a few more before the season ends.
"So much joy, so much pride as well," Nasri said. "I lost the two finals that I played here before. Today it was really important to win.
"In the second half, we came with intention and scored three goals. I hope this cup is going to bring some others. We were still confident [at halftime]. We said we needed to stay calm and remain focused, play higher up and play with more tempo and that's what we did.
"We want to win everything. We're going to compete for the league, the FA Cup and we're going to try to make something in the Champions League. I hope this is going to bring confidence and we'll fight until the end."
City have now locked up one piece of silverware, with three more in sight. The Champions League looks difficult with Barcelona waiting at the Camp Nou with a 2-0 lead, but the English Premier League and the FA Cup are definitely theirs for the taking.
