Sport

Manchester City exit as Monaco and Atletico Madrid reach Champions League last eight

Monaco players celebrate their victory over Manchester City in the Champions League last 16, second leg clash
Monaco players celebrate their victory over Manchester City in the Champions League last 16, second leg clash Monaco players celebrate their victory over Manchester City in the Champions League last 16, second leg clash

John Stones admitted Manchester City's Champions League exit was "difficult to take" after they crashed out on away goals following a 3-1 defeat in Monaco.

City's defensive frailties cost them in the second leg of the last-16 tie as Monaco overturned a 5-3 deficit to win on away goals after a 6-6 aggregate draw.

First-half goals from Kylian Mbappe and Fabinho put the Ligue 1 leaders ahead and although Leroy Sane hit back for City, Tiemoue Bakayoko sealed victory with a header 13 minutes from time.

"I think we were very sloppy," said Stones. "Not up to our usual standards at all in the first half.

"We thought the second half didn't reflect the full scoreline. We weren't the City everyone knows as how we've been playing all season.

"I thought we should have scored more goals. It's a difficult one for us to take - after the first game, how we came back we're thoroughly disappointed.

"We know we should have done better and felt we deserved to be in the next round."

City boss Pep Guardiola admitted his side's first-half performance left him with regrets.

"First half we forget to be there," he told BT Sport. "We are a team, we want to defend aggressively without the ball.

"The second half we were much better but it is not enough.

"Normally we play until the time we are level but for now we didn't.

"We'll learn - we are a team with not a lot of experience in this competition. At that level when you concede the way we play the first 45 minutes it is so difficult.

"Second half we had the chances to score a lot of goals but we didn't and that's why we're out.

"It's the first half, the first 45 minutes, we were like we are, that's my sad thing. We were not there.

"I think we'll improve. We're going to try - this competition is so demanding and sometimes you have to be lucky in that moment and we were not that."

Atletico Madrid Champions League hero Jan Oblak admitted his stunning triple save to deny Bayer Leverkusen happened so quickly that he did not know what happened.

The 24-year-old Slovenia international ensured a goalless draw at the Vicente Calderon and a 4-2 victory on aggregate for Atletico, principally with some scarcely-believable goalkeeping midway through the second half.

He denied Julian Brandt and Kevin Volland, the latter twice, immediately before Javier Hernandez shot across goal. Those stops all-but took the wind out of Bayer's sails as Diego Simeone's side reached the last eight for a fourth straight season.

Asked about the save, Oblak told BT Sport 3: "I don't know. It was going very quickly. Sometimes you defend three and the ball doesn't go in. I'm happy for that."

Oblak barely had a save to make in the first half as former Manchester United forward Hernandez was among visiting players to be wasteful in front of goal.

The stopper said: "They came to score an early goal. First half we defended great. They didn't have one shot on goal so we kept a clean sheet in the first half.

"Second half, it wasn't as good as the first one (defensively) but 0-0 is okay for us."

Oblak was an unused substitute in the first leg as he stepped up his return from a shoulder injury, and after his second-leg heroics recognised the 4-2 lead Atletico took in Germany was vital.

"The first game was very important for us. We won 4-2 so we had an advantage here in Madrid," he added.

"We knew we'd be a lot busier (on Wednesday) against Bayer. They have a good team, a young team. They play really well up front.

"We tried to win tonight. We didn't win, we drew, but the most important thing is to go to the quarter-final. Now lets see who we're going to play."