Defender David Sommeil's last-gasp goal saved Manchester City from defeat in their first ever Premiership game at the City of Manchester Stadium.
Only five seconds of normal time remained against Portsmouth when the Frenchman hammered home an unstoppable header from Joey Barton's free kick.
It brought a huge sigh of relief as City had toiled against a well-organised Pompey side which looked as though they would make it two wins out of two on their return to the top flight.
City Manager Kevin Keegan conceded his side did not deserve to win saying: "Portsmouth deserved something out of the game and will be disappointed not to have won with our equaliser coming so late.
"Yet at the end they could have gone home empty-handed which would have been a travesty.
"I felt we deserved something for our endeavour and the fact we never lost space, despite not playing well and four or five players being below par." There was disappointment also from Pompey manager, Harry Redknapp, who said: "When you are so close to winning it is disappointing. We only needed one last header out of the box and we would have been there.
"But if someone had said beforehand we would have picked up a point we would have taken it." City were stunned midway through the opening half when Pompey new boy Yakubu Ayegbeni raced through the defence and coolly rounded goalkeeper David Seaman to score.
Paulo Wanchope replaced the injured Robbie Fowler for the second half while Eyal Berkovic came on for Antoine Sibierski midway through the half. But it was to little avail as Pompey's defence held firm and they kept City at bay.
Michael Tarnat's thunderbolt free kick was saved by Shaka Hislop who also did well to thwart Nicolas Anelka late on.
But just when Pompey thought victory was secure along came Sommeil's dramatic headed goal.
Then deep into injury time Shaun Wright-Phillips so nearly snatched victory with a long-range shot which flew only a couple of inches wide.