Manchester City Can Surprise in Champions League

Manchester City have a real chance of being surprise winners of this Champions League which I think is one of the most open we've seen in some time.

The match against Monaco is one of the oddest, craziest and wildest I've seen in the Champions League in a very, very long time.

But City won and that's all that matters.





To concede three goals at home is not good and Guardiola has to address that problem. It's been plaguing him all season and perhaps his entire career.

Fix the defence!

The ease with which Monaco were able to find space and exploit City was unacceptable at this level of football. If Monaco had better technical players, they would have scored by more. If you give Draxler, Di Maria, Robben or Douglas Costa those one-on-one situations then better expect lights out.

But despite that, I have been very impressed with how quickly Pep has City playing his brand of football.

He's one of the best coaches with regards to "offensive passing" in the game. City stayed true to their philosophy and managed to get themselves back in an insane game of football.



Beyond just the nuts and bolts of their football is their belief. There is real belief in this City team that no matter the deficit, they can get themselves back in the game.

When Falcao delivered that chip over Caballero, I thought it would be all over. It's the kind of goal that kills your morale and resolve. But City just dug in and kept believing, not giving up.

That is why there is a way in which City can win this Champions League. But in order to be in with a chance of doing that, they can't play Russian Roulette with their defence.

The mixture of Aguero, Sterling, Sane and De Bruyne are good enough to open up any defence. Based purely due to the speed, and intelligence of their wide players, they can find a way of getting goals against anyone.

But what they did to Monaco, won't occur against Bayern or Real Madrid who are far better defensively and would deliver further punishment offensively to City.

The second leg is going to be crazy, but I think City should see themselves in the quarter-final. If Guardiola can iron out the defending, they can surprise a lot of people.

HH

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