Monthly Archives: February 2017

Manchester City showed a great character, turning things around against Monaco on Tuesday! The Pep Guardiola’s players managed to win the game against the leaders in The French Ligue 1 5-3 at The Etihad Stadium, securing a good result before the second leg.

Both teams showed a wonderful performance in attack and made us spectators of attractive attacking football. The Citizens took the lead early in the game. Raheem Sterling opened the score in the 26th minute after a great dribble by Sane. However, The Monegasques managed to equalize almost immediately. Radamel Falcao sent the ball into City’s net. 1-1!

In the 40th minute of the match, the most talented player of The Monegasques – Kylian Mbappe gave his team the lead. He is compared with Thierry Henry and we have to say Mbappe’s playing style and physique is quite similar.

To continue with, the second half started with a penalty kick for Monaco, which was missed by the Colombian goal-scoring machine Radamel Falcao. Just 8 minutes later, Sergio Aguero scored after a mistake by the goalkeeper Subasic. 2-2! And it looked like Manchester City were controlling the game, but this time Falcao found the net for the second time in the game and shocked the Guardiola’s players.

However, the great team spirit of The Citizens kept them aware of winning the match. They managed to score three more goals from the 71st until the 82nd minute, securing the advantage before the second leg in Monaco. We must say John Stones managed to score his first goal in The Champions League!

At both ends, the second leg will be extremely difficult for Manchester City, because Monaco are among the strongest hosts in the major European leagues. The Monegasques have scored 46 goals in 13 matches at home in The Ligue 1, having won 11 of these matches!

It’s a real rarity to see Barcelona playing like that! The Catalans were smashed by Paris Saint-Germain and only lost 0-4 in Paris last Tuesday. Now, the Luis Enrique’s players have very low chances of reaching the quarterfinals of The Champions League.

To begin with, the last time Barcelona were humiliated like that was in 2013, when The Catalans lost to Bayern Munich twice (0-4 away and 0-3 at home) and were eliminated from the competition. Lionel Messi was invisible on the pitch against PSG, losing the ball every time he touched it. With such a performance, Barcelona will hardly win a trophy this season, maybe except the Copa Del Rey, in which they will play Deportivo Alaves in the final match.

Paris Saint-Germain looked extremely strong in attack, putting under pressure the Barcelona’s defence during the whole game. Angel di Maria, who had a birthday, opened the score in the 18th minute after a brilliant free-kick. PSG’s new signing Julian Draxler doubled the score 5 minutes before the end of the first half after a great assist by Verratti.

Everybody expected Barcelona to play better during the second half, but the things only got worse. Di Maria was unstoppable and bagged his second goal of the game in the 55th minute. With 19 minutes to go, Edison Cavani sent the ball into Barca’s net for the 4th time, securing the astonishing victory for The Parisians.

At both ends, it’s time to wonder whether is this the end of an era for Barcelona. The Catalans will surely be eliminated from the Champions League. They are also struggling in the Primera Division, where they can’t show their real face, lying in the second place and with 2 less matches to play than Real Madrid. Will this defeat affect the Barcelona’s players’ psyche? I think, yes, they will find it very difficult until the end of the campaign.