LONDON: Manchester City avoided Europe’s heavyweights in the Champions League last-16 draw but Pep Guardiola’s side must instead beware an in-form Monaco, the leading scorers in Europe’s top divisions this season.

City host the French league leaders at the Etihad Stadium in the first leg on Tuesday looking to extend a nine-game home unbeaten run in the Champions League.

Also on Tuesday, Atletico Madrid — having the undesired record of being a three-time losing finalists — play their first leg away at Bayer Leverkusen.

Although City have been one of world football’s biggest spenders over the last decade, they are yet to progress beyond the semi-finals in the Champions League as they seeks European silverware to firmly establish themselves in the elite.

Guardiola was appointed to take City to the next level on the European stage and he has already masterminded a stirring 3-1 win over his former club Barcelona in the group phase.

But Monaco have been rampant this season, powering to the Ligue 1 summit with a tally of 76 goals that is unsurpassed in Europe’s five major leagues, and will present a formidable challenge as Guardiola tries to keep intact his perfect record of seven victories in as many last-16 ties.

“I am really impressed by how good they are,” Guardiola told Monday’s pre-match press conference.

“They are physically strong. The full-backs play like wingers, the wingers play like attacking midfielders.

“The two strikers — [Radamel] Falcao and [Valere] Germain — are killers in the box. It is the most successful team in Europe in terms of scoring goals. I’m looking forward to playing against them because they are a really, really good team.”

Monaco geared up for the clash with a disappointing 1-1 draw at lowly Bastia in Ligue 1 on Friday but City have no reason for over-confidence after being held to a 0-0 stalemate at second-tier Huddersfield Town in the FA Cup fifth round on Sunday.

Guardiola was not too worried that his team were held by a Championship side in the FA Cup and Monaco were not overly concerned by their result either.

“Let’s not be worried, we missed the first half but did good after the break. It’s the second half [performance] that we need to reproduce against City,” said Monaco forward Valere Germain.

LEVERKUSEN EYE REVENGE AGAINST ATLETICO

Atletico renew acquaintances with Leverkusen after meeting at the same stage in 2014-15.

Atletico prevailed on penalties on that occasion and received a huge boost with goalkeeper Jan Oblak cleared to return from a dislocated shoulder that had sidelined the Slovenia international since December.

Leverkusen will hope to put their erratic Bundesliga form behind them and adopt their most determined European game face.

They are is 20 points behind Bayern Munich after 21 Bundesliga games but can take comfort from an unbeaten 10-match streak at home in Europe as they seek to advance past this knock-out stage for the first time.

Leverkusen did reach the Champions League final in 2002 where they lost to Real Madrid but at the time there was no round of 16 but only two group stages with the quarter-finals following after that.

“Why not win against them [Atletico]?” said Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno. “If we show our Champions League face, then everything is possible.

“You can see the team really wants it. We are fighting, we are fighting for each other and that was not necessarily the case a couple of weeks ago.”

Leno has every right to feel confident with Leverkusen having won their last two league matches, including Friday’s 3-1 victory at Augsburg.

But despite their unbeaten home run, Leverkusen still have a mountain to climb against the Spaniards, who won 4-1 at Sporting Gijon on Saturday with substitute Kevin Gameiro coming off the bench to net a five-minute hat-trick.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2017