Attack proves the best form of defense for Man City boss Guardiola
Facing Europe’s most potent strike force would cause some managers to man the barricades, but for Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola there was only one option in Tuesday night’s Champions League clash with Monaco at home – “attack, attack, attack.”
As it turned out, it proved to be a remarkably effective strategy as City came out on top in an epic 5-3 tussle, clinging on to the coat-tails of its opponent before drawing clear in the closing stages of its last 16, first-leg tie.
There was perhaps a risk in going toe-to-toe with a team which has scored 76 goals in 26 domestic French league games and had already soared past the century in all competitions this season, but the gamble paid off handsomely.
Goals from Raheem Sterling and a double from Sergio Aguero kept City in the encounter, before late efforts from John Stones and Leroy Sane saw them pull clear ahead of the second leg in the principality on March 15.
“We think in attack. Attack, attack, attack,” Guardiola told BT Sport. “Monaco scores maybe 80 goals in one season and attacks with a lot of people. They are physically strong and are a top, top team. That’s why they’re top of the league. That’s why we take a lot of credit with this result.”
The match will go down as one of the greatest Champions League encounters of the modern era and for City, a side with little European pedigree, will help build a bank of experience it can use to help them develop, said Guardiola
The Spaniard’s last two clubs - Barcelona and Bayern Munich - have won 10 European Cups between them, but his latest charges are relative novices among Europe’s elite, having only last season got past the round of 16 for the first time.
“For our future as a club, to live this kind of experience will help us a lot,” Guardiola said.
Neither side’s defense covered themselves in glory during a match that was riddled with errors at the MANCHESTER CITY midfielder Raheem Sterling (right) scores his team’s first goal past Monaco netminder Danijel Subasic during City’s wild 5-3 home victory over Monaco in the first-leg of the clubs’ Champions League last-16 duel. back, while both teams scored due to goalkeeping howlers.
Monaco’s Radamel Falcao also missed a penalty in a match where the overall goal tally could have reached double figures, such was the open-ended nature of the game.
Despite finishing on the losing side, however, there were few regrets for Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim, who is confident his side can still go through over the two legs.
“The first thing I’ll say is that maybe this was one of the most incredible matches in the Champions League this season,” he said.
“It’s great for the fans as I’m sure they were happy to watch such quality attacks and eight goals. I think Monaco played really well and I’ve congratulated the players.
“We’ve still got 90 minutes to play and it’s far from over.”
Atletico closes in on last eight
Meanwhile, Atletico Madrid beat host Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in a topsy-turvy encounter on Tuesday to take a firm handle on their Champions League round-of-16 tie ahead of the return leg in Spain next month.
Two lethal counter-attacks in the opening 25 minutes put the 2014 and 2016 finalist in the driving seat, with Saul Niguez and Antoine Griezmann on target, and gave it the edge for a quarterfinal spot for the ninth time.
“We knew it was going to be a tough game. We wanted to win, we did that and the return leg will be as difficult as tonight was,” said Griezmann. “They pressured us and made life difficult but the boss’s changes helped us win the game tonight. We have a big game to play now in front of our own fans.”
Leverkusen, which paid the price for a disastrous defensive performance, cut the deficit before Atletico’s Kevin Gameiro scored with a spot kick and Stefan Savic’s own goal set up a nervous finale.
Substitute Fernando Torres ended any speculation with his goal in the 86th minute to take revenge for last season’s 1-0 loss as the Germans suffered their first home defeat in Europe after a 10-match unbeaten run.
“It is easy to see how Atletico have reached two finals in three years,” said Leverkusen coach Roger Schmidt. “We knew of their counter-attacking abilities before the game, but we ended up shipping two goals in the first half.”
The Bundesliga club, a finalist in 2002 before the introduction of the round of 16, are now at risk of missing out on the last eight for the fifth time, having never gone past this stage on its four previous attempts.
“We could even have won by a higher margin but their goalkeeper pulled off two outstanding saves to deny Griezmann,” said Madrid coach Diego Simeone. “It is important to have belief when you play away from home, and I thought we had that in abundance.
“We thought before the game that, if we attacked down our left side, we would cause their right-footed defenders problems,” he said. “That is exactly what we did. Leverkusen fought its way back into the game in the second half, but overall it is a very satisfying evening for us.”
“For us it was an unusual game. We did it perfectly in the first half. We were intelligent and smart,” Simeone said. “They came back in the second half but we kept at our plan until the end.”