Manchester City's Champions League night to remember proves European Cup success is on hold for one more summer

When Radamel Falcao skipped past John Stones and lifted his second goal, Monaco’s third, over a helpless Willy Caballero, any suggestion that Manchester City might still be in this competition beyond March felt preposterous. For all the ‘Road to Cardiff’ banners outside the Etihad Stadium City were looking as unserious a Champions League prospect as they ever have done.

Of course City tore back into Monaco and won 5-3. It was one of the greatest games in the history of Manchester City and could transform how the club feels about the competition. But was it the performance of potential European champions?

Before Tuesday night there was a sense that the Champions League could be opening up for City. Paris Saint-Germain’s demolition of Barcelona did not go unnoticed. Bayern Munich are not the same team they were under Pep Guardiola. Atletico Madrid are coming to the end of their cycle. Real Madrid are the best team in it but City have a better manager. So could a path open up for them?

Looking selectively at the evidence of Tuesday night, you can make a persuasive case. City have one of the best midfielders of his generation in David Silva, brilliant again against Monaco, and a dynamic colleague in Kevin De Bruyne. They have two electric young wingers, Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, who contributed one goal and one assist each. They have Sergio Aguero, back to his best and now desperate to prove a point.

More importantly than any of that they have one of the best managers in the world in Guardiola, Champions League winner in 2009 and 2011. From him they have an identity, a way of playing, which the players now understand and which is vital to European success. They could have scored six, seven, eight or nine goals against a strong Monaco side. So why not against one of the European elite?

Because Champions League football is not usually this open. Top teams manage the game better than Monaco did. Once 2-1 or 3-2 up, they would slow the game down, not keep it open, preserving their advantage and taking it back to the second leg. Guardiola spoke of Monaco’s European experience afterwards, but a truly canny team would not have folded in the second half as Monaco did.

And, crucially, they could have scored more. The reality is that City were lucky to get away with conceding just the three away goals. Willy Caballero saved a Falcao penalty and made another harder save from the same striker. Falcao and Kylian Mbappe went close in the first half too.

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This was another game which underlined how far City’s centre-backs are from Champions League class. Nicolas Otamendi lost Mbappe for Monaco’s second and gave away the penalty. Stones lost Falcao for the first and third.

It was all very reminiscent of when Diego Costa came to the Etihad Stadium in December. He too gave Stones and Otamendi a chasing, dragging them around the pitch, holding them off, toying with them before pouncing when he had to. The way Falcao beat Stones for his second goal, in fact, looked like how Costa beat Otamendi to score that day.

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That never used to happen to Vincent Kompany but the sad reality is that Guardiola has to try to build a defence without City’s captain and rock. He has had to make do with Aleksandar Kolarov and it says everything about City’s options that the Serbian left-back, who nearly joined Besiktas last summer, is the centre-back who Guardiola trusts the most.

Guardiola had no option than to play Stones and Otamendi and he cannot have been too surprised by what he saw. But he will be keenly aware that if City do get through the second leg next month, there are some very serious players lying in wait. Robert Lewandowski, Antoine Griezmann, Edinson Cavani and Gareth Bale will all have watched this game and seen how many chances City give up. They will score as many goals as Monaco did, and will not be as generous with their own defending. City’s quest for the European Cup may need one more transfer window.