Monaco pips City

Atletico progresses to the last-eight, courtesy Oblak

March 16, 2017 11:44 pm | Updated 11:44 pm IST - MONACO

Giant-killers:  Monaco players celebrate after ending Man City’s campaign.

Giant-killers: Monaco players celebrate after ending Man City’s campaign.

Monaco swept into the Champions League quarterfinals and left Manchester City to pick up the pieces of another failed European campaign after a 3-1 victory on Wednesday sent it through on away goals.

Monaco needed to overturn a two-goal first-leg deficit but French prodigy Kylian Mbappe, Fabinho and Tiemoue Bakayoko scored on a memorable European night for the principality club, which underlined its growing status as one of the continent’s most exciting sides.

City, which won the first-leg 5-3 in Manchester, was completely overwhelmed in the first half and fell two goals behind, but reacted after the break and Leroy Sane reduced the arrears as Monaco seemed to run out of steam.

Bakayoko, however, headed home in the 77th minute to ensure the Ligue 1 club was celebrating at full time after the tie finished 6-6 over two enthralling encounters.

It was the first time City boss Pep Guardiola had been eliminated in the competition’s last 16, while City became the first team to exit the Champions League after scoring five goals in the first leg.

City, which has consistently been one of Europe’s biggest spending clubs, has now failed to get past the last 16 in four of the last five years.

Leonardo Jardim’s team, which was without the injured Radamel Falcao, started brightly and pressed high as Mbappe’s pace forced City to sit deep.

The 18-year-old then opened the scoring, turning in Silva’s low cross from the left from close range after eight minutes.

City barely set foot in Monaco’s half and in the 29th minute, Fabinho fired home from Benjamin Mendy’s inch-perfect centre.

City reduced the arrears in the 71st minute when Sterling’s shot was parried by Subasic into the path of Sane, who fired into the roof of the net. That put City in front on aggregate, but Monaco turned the tie back in its favour when Bakayoko headed home from a Thomas Lemar free kick.

Stalemate

Atletico Madrid goalkeeper Jan Oblak was the hero as the Spanish side reached the Champions League quarterfinals for the fourth year in a row after drawing 0-0 with Bayer Leverkusen in an open last-16 second-leg at Madrid on Wednesday.

Slovenia international Oblak made an outstanding triple save to deny Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland in the second half and he made further impressive stops late in the game to shut out the Germans and secure a 4-2 aggregate success.

The results : Monaco 3 (Mbappe 8, Tavares 29, Bakayoko 77) bt Manchester City 1 (Sane 71) (6-6 on aggregate; Monaco won on away goals); Atletico Madrid 0 drew with Bayer Leverkusen 0 (Atletico won 4-2 on aggregate) .

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.