Monaco UCL Draw Is Easiest Option for Manchester City but Anything but Easy

There was a time when Manchester City fans were excited about watching the Champions League draw. It was back in the days when the club was still the fresh-faced new boy to the competition and hadn’t had much experience of playing against the elite sides from the continent.

It was like being a lower-league side in the FA Cup third round, with supporters gathered around the television asking, "who are we going to get?," but not really caring.

On Monday morning, as City’s name was first out of the pot and drawn alongside Ligue 1 team AS Monaco, there was considerably less enthusiasm from those same fans. Of course, there was still interest in the draw, and the competition will play a big part in the club’s season after Christmas, but it’s hard to deny many have fallen out of love with the Champions League.

Bizarrely, part of the problem that's created the malaise is the number of tough draws City have had down the years. In Monaco, they've been given exactly what they wanted in what's perceived as the easiest opponent they could have faced. It's important to note here that "easiest" doesn't mean "easy," though.

The supporters could have been fearing the worst, having finished second in their group, but it seemed to be less of a problem this season. In fact, City feel like part of the inspiration to change the seeding system for the competition because of the harsh nature of the hands they've been dealt in years gone by.

In their debut season, 2011-12, they were put into what was regarded as the strongest group of the lot—finishing third despite their haul of 10 points being enough to qualify for the knockout phase in most other groups in most other years.

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The following campaign they were drawn against Spanish champions Real Madrid, German champions Borussia Dortmund and Dutch champions Ajax despite being the Premier League holders. Their ties should have been more favourable given their status as England's best, yet they were penalised for their short history of European involvement.

Leicester City have got the new seeding system to thank for their favourable group-stage draw.

As the balls were put into their respective pots on Monday morning, there were few concerns about which outfits Pep Guardiola's team could face. All of the top-quality Champions League sides—the ones City have continually had an identity crisis and failed against—weren’t available. Barcelona, who had been in the same group, were off the cards, while Bayern Munich and Real Madrid both also failed to finish top, meaning they were out of the question too. 

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That’s not to say City were guaranteed an easy draw—frankly, all of the teams Guardiola’s side could have faced could beat them and quite comfortably at the moment too. However, there’s the feeling that on their day and over two legs, City could be a match for any of the sides that were available to them. 

In the end, Monaco was the best of what was available, but there should still be nerves. Other English teams have perhaps taken the Ligue 1 side lightly and paid the price, so City would do well to leave nothing to chance when the two meet in February.

Monaco beat Tottenham Hotspur twice in the group stage this season, and they knocked Arsenal out of the round of 16 in 2014-15 on away goals, following an impressive 3-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium.

Director of football Txiki Begiristain was quick to temper any expectations that the tie will be a walk in the park. He told City's official website:

"

It's always difficult to say whether it's a tough or easy draw, they are doing well in the French league, they have good players, good talent, young players and they are playing some of the best football in France.

It's going to be tough, we are happy to be here in the draw, we were in the semi finals last season, so we try to go through. ...

Monaco topped their group so they are playing well in the Champions League and France—we have to be careful.

"

As it stands, Monaco are the leading scorers in the French top flight by some distance, having found the net 53 times so far this season—outscoring the rest of Ligue 1 by at least 21 goals. Paris-Saint-Germain and OGC Nice, joint-second in the scoring charts, have racked up 32 strikes in their 17 matches each. That's the same as City have in 15 Premier League games.

In fact, no team in Europe has found the net as often as Monaco this season—as they average a goal every 29 minutes in the league.

A lot of this is down to the resurgence of Radamel Falcao, still ridiculed in England after largely unsuccessful spells on loan at Manchester United and Chelsea. However, his 14 goals in all competitions already this campaign makes him one of the most dangerous forwards in Europe.

Given how City have defended so far this season, it’s certainly not a mouthwatering prospect to be facing such a potent attack. It means Guardiola has roughly two months and one transfer window to fix the shambles that has kept just five clean sheets in 25 fixtures.

If the Catalan’s players are still gifting away goals at the rate they have been in recent weeks—Jamie Vardy has probably never scored an easier hat-trick as City put in no resistance to Leicester’s attack on Saturday—then Monaco will be rubbing their hands with glee at what could follow. Unless big improvements are made, the easiest draw City could have been given could turn out to be an embarrassment on the European stage.

But there are echoes of last season here for City. They were struggling for form in the final months of Manuel Pellegrini's reign, just as they are now, and still they stood up to the tough test of PSG in the quarter-finals. They may not be the elite level of team that City are aspiring to beat on a regular basis, but it was a tricky tie they negotiated well. Monaco will present similar challenges.

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The mood is certainly optimistic following the draw. A lot of that could be down to memories of struggles against Napoli, Juventus and Borussia Dortmund from previous years, which makes all of them good opponents to avoid. Atletico Madrid’s recent displays in the competition's latter stages make them seem like a bullet dodged too.

However, that has created the illusion that City are virtually through to the quarter-finals already, having drawn a team of no-marks from a league that isn't considered one of the best in Europe—when nothing could be further from the truth.

If the players go in feeling like that, they'll be left with their tails between their legs and licking some considerable wounds. There can be no room for that sort of complacency.