Leg 1 – Champions League Round of 16: Manchester City 5-3 AS Monaco
One of the most exciting games of season ended in a eight-goal thriller where each team led. Forwards were at their best in Manchester with a brace from Aguero and Falco for each side. Monaco was up 3-2 with 30 minutes to play but City never gave up and scored three goals in less than 10 minutes to pull away and get a two-goal advantage before going to Monaco.
Man City coach, Guardiola comments on the game:
“It was a special game. I cannot deny that. It had up and downs. We attacked quite good, although our build up was quite slow – but it was not easy because Monaco are so organized. A lot of things happened. Everything is open. We played against incredible players, who were quick on the counter attack and in the midfield, and strong physically.We attacked in small spaces and we defended with huge spaces behind. That’s why they wanted me to come here. Everybody has to be congratulated because if one team can score a thousand million goals, it’s Monaco!
If you are not able to control all the game, especially the counter attack, it’s so rough. We have to improve – the first and second goals were mistakes. Today, the lesson is: we never gave up. In some moments we were lucky but we were unlucky in the first half. I am so happy for the result and the performance. These kind of things help this club achieve another step forward.
We are going to fly to Monaco to score as many goals as possible. I would like to see how many teams are able to get a clean sheet against Monaco this season. They have fantastic players. We understood immediately they are going to attack with runs in behind. It’s so, so difficult but we created a lot of chances and I don’t know if Monaco have seen a team create as many chances as we did against them tonight.
They always arrived with 6, 7 players and I haven’t seen a team attack with so many good players for a long time. ow we know each other better, we are going to adjust, they are going to adjust… If we don’t score in Monaco, we will be eliminated”
