Guardiola humbled as his milestone night turns sour in Monaco

MONACO: Hired to turn Manchester City into true European heavyweights, Pep Guardiola failed just like those before him as his expensively-assembled side crashed out of the Champions League to Monaco on Wednesday.

A 3-1 defeat in the Riviera principality rendered City’s 5-3 home win academic as Monaco went through on away goals after an astonishing last 16 tie ended 6-6 on aggregate.

It ended Guardiola’s proud record of reaching at least the semi-finals for the past seven seasons with Barcelona and then Bayern Munich, while City became the first club to exit the competition having scored five goals in the first leg.

Hardly the way Guardiola, twice a winner as manager of a world-beating Barcelona side, wanted to celebrate taking charge of his 100th match in European competition.

While City’s owner Sheikh Mansour will give Guardiola time and plenty of money to get things right, the reality is the Spaniard’s first year at the helm will be classed as a major disappointment unless City go on to win the FA Cup.

Last season City reached the semis of the Champions League for the first time under Manuel Pellegrini – who never quite won over all the City fans despite winning the Premier League and League Cup in his first season in charge.

Yet when it came to the crunch on Wednesday, City showed they have regressed. While a year ago it was Real Madrid who beat them 1-0 on aggregate this time it was a side that despite their flair do not yet occupy a place at Europe’s top table.

What made it all the more galling was the naivety of City’s first-half play when they surrendered the initiative to Leonardo Jardim’s side that was missing injured talisman Radamel Falcao.

Guardiola said beforehand that attack was the best way to defend their 5-3 advantage, but they did precious little of it in the first half. And not much defending either. – Reuters