Champions League: When the Rich Boys Travel to Playground of the Rich

AS Monaco vs Manchester City

So, what happens when the rich boys of football travel to the playground of the rich?

Well, a lot of lavish and glamorous enjoyment is had by all would be the simple answer and I am sure that will be the case again in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

The fact is though that, while the F1 enhances the glamour, Monaco are very much the poor relation when it comes to football.

Certainly, the Stade Louis Stadium is far from the venue expected in an area of such extravagance and has a capacity of under 20,000, despite being based in the principality of the rich and famous.

You have to go back eight years to when they were last crowned French champions and it’s 21 years since they reached the Champions League Final.

Furthermore, they have only made it past the group stage once in the past eight years (not that they have always qualified).

So, what Champions League 2025 highlights can we expect when England’s dominant force over the past decade arrive?

Talking Points

This match-up actually makes me think of their most recent meeting – a last 16 tie in 2017. The year Monaco shocked Pep Guardiola’s City and progressed on away goals after the tie finished level at 6-6 after two legs.

More on that later but I use that as a perfect example to illustrate just why Monaco cannot keep abreast on the footballing front, despite being on the doorstep of a millionaire’s playground.

Their side that year comprised the likes of a lightning teenager superstar by the name of Kylian Mbappe, Brazilian midfielder Fabinho, the in-demand Thomas Lemar and two other stand-out players in Benjamin Mendy and Bernardo Silva.

You know the rest: all left Monaco within a year of that season (the latter two for City who are now captained by Silva).

What would have happened had then manager Leonardo Jardim been able to keep hold onto his exciting young team we shall never know.

What we do know is that Monaco, who went onto reach the semi-finals that season and romped to the Ligue 1 title by eight points from big-spending PSG (who promptly snapped up Mbappe) and scored 107 goals in the process, were never the same again.

To prove the point, Monaco left Belgium battered and bruised in their first game of the tournament a few weeks ago as Adi Hutter’s defence was carved open at will by a clinical Club Brugge side in a 4-1 drubbing.

It begs the question, if that can happen against a side expected to be on the fringes of qualification, what will happen against one of the competition big-hitters.

They warmed up for this domestically at the weekend with a crushing 3-1 loss to Lorient.

By contrast, City – who opened their European account with a 2-0 home win over Napoli – were putting five past newly promoted Burnley in the Premier League, even if two late goals added a slightly one-sided look to the scoreline.

Erling Haaland scored in Manchester City's most recent Champions League game — Erling Haaland celebrates his goal for Manchester City against Burnley

While they remain an enigmatic blend of a soft centre and mean attacking edge led by Erling Haaland, who has an incredible 50 goals in 49 Champions League games in his career to date, they are never quite the same without 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri.

The Spanish metronome did not feature in their weekend victory after reporting pain in the knee that suffered anterior cruciate ligament damage last season and is unlikely to be risked here.

Even still, City should have more than enough against hosts already without Lamine Camara (ankle), Denis Zakaria (groin), Aleksandr Golovin (hamstring) and number one goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky (knee).

The class of 2017 they are not.

History

The clubs have only met twice and it was that 2017 last-16 tie I referred to earlier.

City seemed to have one foot in the quarter-finals when Raheem Sterling, Sergio Aguero (two), John Stones and Leroy Sane found the net in a 5-3 first leg win in Manchester.

Yet Monaco, who had led twice in the contest and found the net through Radamel Falcao (two) and Mbappe, had other ideas and stunned Guardiola and co.

Mbappe and Fabinho scored twice inside the opening half hour of the second leg and, while Sane pulled one back, it was cancelled out by a Tiemoue Bakayoko header 13 minutes from time to spark Monaco and Monte Carlo delight.

Bakayoko was one of the other players they couldn’t keep hold of that summer and he was snapped up by Chelsea within months.