“The best way to defend is to score goals,” remarked Pep Guardiola before Manchester City’s return leg with Monaco. The Spaniard was preaching the gospel of the beautiful game, but, as soon as the match kicked off, that intent evaporated with a raving-mad, but supreme, Monaco strangling City across the board with tight man-marking and high pressing.
Radamel Falcao was missing from Monaco’s starting XI, but that was not going to prevent another high-scoring game. Could it be 7-5 for Monaco? History suggested Monaco had the European pedigree. Back in 2004, Monaco knocked out the Galacticos – the original cast with Zinedine Zidane, Raul, Figo and Ronaldo – notwithstanding Real Madrid’s 4-2 advantage from the first leg. Two goals from Ludovic Giuly and one from Fernando Morientes eliminated the Merengues.
Or could it simply again be 5-3 with extra-time? Based on the breathless champagne football that Manchester City and Monaco served up in the first-leg, no scoreline was beyond the realm of possibilities at the Stade Louis II in the Principality.
Enchanting display
Those 90 minutes were a purist’s delight, because both teams played to compete – and no one capitulated. They flicked the ball from box-to-box, with the sole purpose of scoring another goal. Tactical ineptitude and defensive failings lubricated the 5-3 goal fest. Therein lay a beauty – this game had been very imperfect.
This time Monaco made one rejoice with a half of complete, superlative football. They were scorching and potent. Early on Kylian Mbappe, Thierry Henry-elect, tested Willy Caballero with low drive. Mbappe and Fabinho delivered two goals before the half-hour mark, executed with a neat suppleness. But those goals were merely an exponent of Monaco’s superiority.
City were bullied. They struggled to get out of their own half. Fernandinho, City’s defensive midfielder, drowned against Fabinho and Tieumoue Bakayoko. He couldn’t deal with their speed and physicality, and neither could his team. The Brazilian was caught in possession multiple times.
In the face of so much French prowess, Guardiola prowled alongside his touchline, pondering his options. City’s front five were not linking up, with Sergio Aguero completely isolated up front. The quartet of Raheem Sterling, Leroy Sane, Kevin de Bruyne and David Silva were forced to drop back and shore up the midfield.
Going all the way
The latter two failed to drive City, amid all the harrying and the snapping from Monaco. But could the French team, 11 zealous zealots, maintain this intensity for the entire 90 minutes? A pertinent question after Monaco’s physical second-half collapse in Manchester.
At the break, Guardiola reshuffled his line-up. De Bruyne dropped deeper to play alongside Fernandinho. From his new position the Belgian tried to orchestrate the play in a peculiar second half, an exact copy of the last 45 minutes in the first leg.
For Leonardo Jardim, it was an awkward déjà vu. His defence sat deeper. His team ceded possession. His eleven scuttled. This was a strange role-reversal. Monaco were deflated and disheartened. They no longer had the energy levels of that imperious first half, and thus, they no longer commanded the match.
They were opening up, leaving far too much space in the midfield. City probed. First, De Bruyne carved open the French rearguard with a defence-splitting pass. Secondly, Sane threatened Danijel Subasic, the much-maligned Monaco goalkeeper. Thirdly, Sane, again, hit the side-netting.
At this rate City were always going to score, and, as it was, De Bruyne, who reveled in his new position, fed Raheem Sterling, whose shot was converted on the rebound by Sane.
The youth and fearlessness of Monaco seemed to backfire. Both full-backs, Djibril Sidibe and Benjamin Mendy, left acres of space in behind. Then, out of thin air, Monaco extended their lead with their first genuine attack in the second stanza. Bakayoko headed in from a set piece, with City’s defensive line all too high. For the last 13 minutes, Monaco did what they find difficult to do and what goes against their nature: they held shape, and progressed to the last eight of the Champions League.
The dark horse?
After Paris Saint-Germain’s infamous exit at the hands of FC Barcelona, Monaco carry the French flag forward in Europe. They are a team brimming with talented players, vying, as interlopers, together with Leicester City, to be Europe’s best XI. And City? Oh yes, back in the Premier League, the world’s second-best league, they are left to reflect on another poor European campaign.
