Monaco knocked Manchester City out of European competition with a fine 3-1 victory at the Stade Louis II and progressed to their second quarterfinal in three years. Kylian Mbappe, Fabinho and Tiemoue Bakayoko scored for the home team as the visitors replied through Leroy Sane.
The hosts, trailing 3-5 from the first leg, started the game in breakneck fashion, as wonderkid and teenage livewire Mbappe ran free of the defence early on, only for Willy Caballero to pull off an early save.
He was not to be denied as Benjamin Mendy’s cross, blocked by John Stones fell to Bernardo Silva, who crossed it in for the 18-year old to knock it in and give Monaco an early lead on the night.
City were not able to sustain any passing momentum as it was all one-way traffic for the first twenty odd minutes. Monaco got a well-deserved second when some slick interplay on the left between Thomas Lemar and Mendy led to the latter flashing a low cross, which Fabinho expertly side-footed to give the home team the lead in the tie through away goals.
The first half ended with Monaco in the driver’s seat and City unable to conjure up a single chance. Pep Guardiola’s half-time talk seemed to done the trick when the Citizens played much better and threatened Daniel Subasic’s goal a couple of times.
The most presentable of these chances fell to Sergio Aguero, who couldn’t get past the Croat. The tie then turned on its head as Raheem Sterling controlled a cross-field ball perfectly before shooting from outside the box. The ball was parried onto the path of Leroy Sane, who made no mistake in giving City the upper hand in the tie.
Their joy was short-lived as Bakayoko, suspended from Monaco’s next match due to accumulating two many yellows, converted a Lemar free-kick to wrest back the iniative once again.
The hosts eventually held on the two-goal advantage as they became the only French team to reach the quarters this season. Joining them in the last eight will be Atletico Madrid, who played out a goalless draw with Bayer Leverkusen at home, qualifying for the next stage via a 3-0 aggregate win.
Brief Scores:
Monaco 3 (Kylian Mbappe, Fabinho and Tiemoue Bakayoko) beat Manchester City 1 (Leroy Sane)
Atletico Madrid 0 draw with Bayer Leverkusen, win the tie 4-2 on aggregate
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