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City, Monaco eye repeat show
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PEP Guardiola and Leonardo Jardim were up and down from their seats in the dugout, trying to get messages to their players but ultimately powerless to exert any control in a chaotic game that was unfolding before them.
In the end, they were just swept along by it like everyone else.
Guardiola’s Manchester City and Jardim’s Monaco served up a spectacular UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday, a dizzying eight-goal thriller that had everything: stunning goals, woeful defending, exquisite build-up play, a missed penalty, refereeing controversies.
City came out on top, scoring three late goals in an 11-minute span to win 5-3, but both coaches agreed that soccer was the real winner. “It was special, I cannot deny that,” Guardiola said.
The game was a reflection of the attacking philosophies that both Guardiola and Jardim preach. The defending left a lot to be desired at Etihad Stadium but, they argued, so what? Supporters went home having witnessed one of the great UCL games, and the millions of TV viewers around the world were thoroughly entertained.
“We work hard to put on a show,” said Jardim, whose team has now scored 111 goals in all competitions this season and is the top scorer in Europe’s five top leagues.
Excitingly, Guardiola promised more of the same in the return leg in Monaco on March 15. In truth — and he almost said as much — he cannot trust his defense to eke out a low-scoring draw or narrow loss.
It’s not in his nature, either.
“We are going to fly to Monaco to score as many goals as possible,” Guardiola said. “We are not going to defend that result.”
A side that has a front five of Sergio Aguero, Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne is always going to score goals. Aguero scored two of them against Monaco, which will come as huge psychological boost to a player who was recently dropped from the team for the first time in his six-year City career. Sane and Sterling also scored.
But Monaco’s players were arguably even more threatening going forward and were slightly unfortunate to lose by a two-goal margin.
Even Guardiola, one of the most attack-minded coaches in soccer history, was taken aback at Monaco’s gung-ho approach. And he had a question. “I would like to know,” he said, “how many teams have kept a clean sheet against Monaco this season.”
The answer? Two: Nice, in a French league match in September, and Bayer Leverkusen, in an UCL match in December.
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