On Wednesday evening the last two Champions League fixtures were played for the round of 16. The two 2nd leg ties included Monaco – Manchester City and Juventus – Porto.
Following a comfortable 2-0 away victory in the 1st leg for Juventus they already had a foot in the quarter-finals as expected cruised to qualification. The Old Lady had a fairly quiet match against FC Porto as the game ended 3-0, sending the Italian champions through with 3 goals to nil on aggregate. The only goal in the match came from the penalty spot as young Argentinian Paulo Dybala sent Champions League veteran Iker Casillas the wrong way. The decision to award Juve the penalty also resulted in a red card for Maximiliano Pereira as the Porto full-back was judged to intentionally block a Higuain shot with his arm. This then totally annihilated any chance that Porto had of getting back into the match and so Juventus killed the game off in style.
The other fixture between Monaco and Manchester City, on the other hand, was much more exciting. Manchester City won the first leg at the Etihad by 5 goals to 3. Although they did score 5 goals, conceding 3 goals at home should always be setting off alarm bells in a competition where all too often away goals really change the game. The result of the first half meant that Monaco needed to win by 2 goals or more to secure qualification to the quarter-finals. Which given their league form this season everyone knew they were capable.
Needless to say Monaco started the game in the best possible way as they caused the Manchester City defense all sorts of problems. This high pressure from the start of the game soon paid off when in the 8th-minute teenage sensation, 18-year-old striker Mbappe finished from close range from an inch-perfect cross by Bernado Silva. For such an inexperienced player Mbappe showed great movement and composure to finish. Certainly, a player to keep an eye on for the future! The city really needed to regain some composure as early on in the game it looked as though unless things didn’t change they could be facing an embarrassing result. However, Monaco did breakthrough again, this time through versatile midfielder/defender / seemingly everywhere player Fabinho. The Brazilian latching onto a cross from Mendy to coolly slot the ball past Willy Caballero.
Half time came to the rescue of Manchester City and I don’t doubt Pep Guardiola said some very very stern words for his side as they now needed a goal in order to avoid being knocked out of the competition. At the beginning of the second half City appeared to be a rejuvenated side as Aguero and Sane both had decent chances to grab a goal for the visitors. The Citizens did eventually get their goal through Sane as the young German latched onto a loose ball in the penalty area to smash home into the roof of the net. Despite the Manchester City side in the second half looking like a much better side than the one we saw in the first half their happiness was short lived. Monaco refused to be written off as centre mid Bakayoko thumped home a header from a Lemar cross. Monaco were then able to see out the remainder of the game to see the French side through to the qquarter-finals
Overall it was a very poor performance from Manchester City. Conceding all 3 goals from crosses shows a clear weakness in Guardiola’s side which if they’re going to compete with Europe’s best they have to fix.
