One of the most memorable games in the 1/8 finals in the current Champions League, of course, was the first match between the “Monaco” and “Manchester City”, which delighted the British public with eight goals scored.
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Monaco are now leading Ligue 1 at the moment and following Paris Saint-Germain’s exit from the Champions League last week, they are the only French club surviving in the competition.
“It’s a very important match against Monaco away and they are now one of the best European teams”, he said.
The pretence evaporated in the news conference room of the Stade Louis II in Monaco on Tuesday, however, when Guardiola was asked whether City could win the Champions League this season.
Portuguese boss Jardim, who has overseen Monaco’s revival since taking charge in 2014, relishes such clashes the most.
“Can we win it?” Set pieces. You lose five minutes of concentration and you’re out. “We’d like to go through, but we can not forget the team we are going to play”.
“City have had a hard time in Europe, which is new for this club, but a year ago we did great in the Champions League”. City are third in the Premier League, have reached the FA Cup semifinals and are in pole position to make it to the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
“We start the game not with 0-0 but 5-3, so we know if we lost 2-0, 3-1, 4-2 we’re out and we have spoken about that”. They don’t attack with five, they attack with six guys. A two-goal deficit isn’t as big as all that for them.
Monaco striker Radamel Falcao has revealed that the belief shown in him by everyone at the club has helped him perform to his potential this season.
City head to the principality for the second leg of their round-of-16 tie having won the first leg 5-3 at the Etihad Stadium.
“All I can say is that I want to see a good game and it will be a dream for us to reach the quarter-finals”. All of those successes were achieved in seasons when European football was without a dominant force and this campaign could be a similar story.
City need to be careful in the second leg. Monaco may have been defensively brittle at the Etihad in the first encounter, although in the main they’ve got the balance right in Ligue 1 for much of the campaign.
The whole of Europe knows it would not be any other way for Guardiola.
“We’re not going to change”, said full back Pablo Zabaleta.
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City wasted several opportunites to see off Stoke in the league last midweek and were made to wait until the final 25 minutes to kill off Boro on Saturday, but Toure hopes his attacking team-mates are saving up their goals for Monaco.
