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Manchester City 5-3 Monaco: Joy of Pep Guardiola's flawed entertainers

Manchester City beat Monaco 5-3 in the Champions League last-16 first leg at the Etihad Stadium [Feature image]

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City served up a delicious shambles and - for one night only - it tasted great. Adam Bate reflects on their 5-3 Champions League win over Monaco…

This was not the sort of controlled dominance that Manchester City supporters had been told to expect from their Catalan coach. Instead, it is as though Pep Guardiola's brand of attacking football has gone through the City filter and emerged as something new - resulting in a glorious mess of a performance that will be talked about for years to come.

City hit five in Etihad epic
City hit five in Etihad epic

Man City battled back to beat Monaco 5-3 in a remarkable Champions League last-16 first-leg match.

Willy Caballero's City career has veered between hapless and heroic but here he delivered the full repertoire in one night. Radamel Falcao and John Stones each offered their own variations of the good, the bad and the ugly, while Sergio Aguero scored one of the softer goals of his career before volleying in one of his best. Somewhere amongst it all, City won.

One shot to the foot is normally enough to hobble the hopes of any Champions League side once the relative minnows have taken their leave at the turn of the year. Here, City were able to fire off three rounds and were seemingly set to take aim at their own head before salvaging the situation in dramatic style. A goal down with 20 to go, they still won 5-3.

Manchester City's Sergio Aguero celebrates scoring his side's third goal with Leroy Sane
Image: Sergio Aguero celebrates levelling things up at three apiece at the Etihad

This was the first time that eight goals have ever been scored in the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie. Even this season's record for yellow cards was broken. It was a game to evoke memories of Chelsea's chaotic win over Barcelona in 2005 or Manchester United's doomed attempt to turn around their famous clash with Real Madrid two years before that.

Monaco do not have the storied history of those opponents but Leonardo Jardim's team played with the sort of wild abandon seldom seen at this stage of the competition. Such is their attacking threat, while City are now well placed in the tie, it seems a stretch to even think about calling it control. For 70 minutes at least, Monaco simply could not be shackled.

MANCHESTER, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 21:  Radamel Falcao Garcia of AS Monaco (C) scores their third goal during the UEFA Champions League Round of 16 first leg m
Image: Radamel Falcao scored the goal of an amazing night in Manchester

They played with pace and verve, probing the flanks and rushing the home side everywhere else. The resurrection of Falcao is quite something but the arrival of Kylian Mbappe is likely to last rather longer. The 18-year-old forward's emergence in European terms was a feature of the night and a joy to behold. His Thierry Henry impression certainly convinced the fans.

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That City crowd has not always been enamoured with this competition and, in particular, those who run it. The now customary boos at the outset emphasised the point. But the anger only increased as the game went on and the decisions did not go their way. And yet, it all helped. By the climax, it was arguably as noisy as it has been at the Etihad all season.

Pep: We must score in Monaco
Pep: We must score in Monaco

Pep Guardiola says Manchester City must score in Monaco to advance in the Champions League.

Guardiola's name was chanted at the death as the crowd revelled in the moment - perhaps one of the great European moments this club has enjoyed. It was not delivered in front of an audience of pseuds nodding enthusiastically about the coach's tactical brilliance. There will be little talk of his savvy use of full-backs or the stylistic nuances that he has introduced.

In fact, this was a night that raised further questions in that regard. Caballero's insistence on passing his way out of trouble only seems to succeed in finding more of it, while the sight of Stones being outpaced by a 31-year-old man with a history of major knee problems should be almost as worrisome as Nicolas Otamendi's apparent inability to detect danger.

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These are not traits that usually accompany Champions League winners. Indeed, City scored as many goals in one knockout night as Atletico Madrid needed to reach last year's final but, just as pertinently, also conceded as many as Real Madrid did in all seven of the knockout matches that they had to play to win the thing. That is more like the template for victory.

But it was not a night for all that. The inquest will follow. Instead it was a night to celebrate the coach - both coaches - who helped lay on this spectacle. This is not how Champions Leagues tend to be won but it is what memories are made of and for one glorious night in Manchester, much like the defences on show, there was just no hope of resisting the fun.

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