Manchester City put one foot in the quarter-final of the Champions League with a dramatic victory over Monaco at the Etihad.
Manchester City’s John Stones and Raheem Sterling after the match
Manchester City fans have been taking to Twitter to discuss a quite incredible first-leg of their Champions League last 16 tie with Monaco, and while there was certainly plenty of talking points to emerge from the 5-3 win for the Citizens, it was the performance of Raheem Sterling that seemed to receive the most unanimous praise.
Pep Guardiola’s men arguably put one foot in the last eight of the competition as, while they conceded three away goals, they will take a two-goal lead with them to the Principality for the second-leg, but they certainly did not have it easy.
City had broken the deadlock, but they subsequently had to come from behind on two occasions to secure the win. Sterling had opened the scoring, before a brace from Sergio Aguero and goals from John Stones and Leroy Sane helped City to the victory.
While the likes of Aguero, Stones or Willy Caballero will probably take many of the headlines – the latter two managed to atone for mistakes with key contributions, with Caballero saving a penalty from Radamel Falcao and making a brilliant late stop – Sterling perhaps deserves to be considered the man of the match from the action-packed contest.
As well as scoring the first goal, the winger set up Aguero’s first and caused the Ligue 1 side a huge number of problems right until the moment he was substituted in the final minutes of the contest, and rightfully, received plenty of plaudits.
Here is the best of the reaction…
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