Silva the talisman in Monaco’s young but lethal attack

Manchester City coach Pep Guardiola sees no way to stop Monaco’s prolific attack, warning his players it would be a “huge mistake” to try and defend their lead in the return leg of their Champions League last-16 match on Wednesday.

“When one team scores that many goals and you think about just defending, you kill yourself”. We want to do the best we can and win as much as possible and hopefully at the end of my career I can say I have won it at least once.

“We are good, we score a lot but we are still young and we will have to progress to be the best team in the world”.

‘Maybe it will happen because we won’t be able to attack or won’t be able to control their fantastic attack. That is what I have to try to convince my players of. “I told my players, even today, that the small details count”, he said.

The price on Over 3.5 Goals seems excellent value given how the game is likely to unfold, with Monaco needing to attack and likely to take the sort of risks that would give Manchester City the chance to pick them apart on the break.

“I think there’ll be a lot of space and attacking intent tomorrow and, perhaps, a lot of goals”.

“I don’t know if we’re able to win the Champions League”. But Manager Josep “Pep” Guardiola vowed on Tuesday that his team will press their advantage and play and aggressive game, looking to build on their lead rather than simply sit on it.

Former Manchester United and Chelsea loanee Radamel Falcao has 21 of those, including two at the Etihad – as many as he scored at Old Trafford in his season in red. You lose five minutes of concentration and you’re out. “We have to wait until tomorrow to take a decision”. Because if we attack like insane we can concede goals and it will be all over.

A record eight goals and ten yellow cards first time around, this is the Champions League last 16 second leg tie that we’ve all been dying to see and it’s exclusively live on BT Sport.

Guardiola, on the other hand, has powerfully preached to his squad this week to embrace the pressure and last season’s losing semi-finalists have surely by now stored up enough nous to make sure there are no slip-ups, starting this game from a position of relative strength.

“I think, in any case, Monaco are not a team with the experience or the maturity to allow them to manage a result”.

Jardim said: “A Champions League game is very important – players always give their all and won’t be exhausted”.

Defender Pablo Zabaleta said: “I’m not the manager to decide how we’re going to play that game but we’re not going to change our style of play”.