Sergio Aguero proves Pep Guardiola wrong on night of anarchy as Manchester City beat Monaco

Sergio Aguero turns 29 in June, so he may be too old to be called a kid. On nights such as this, however, the Argentinian still feels like Manchester City’s comeback kid. He has an indelible association with extraordinary acts of escapology. The most famous is commemorated outside the Etihad Stadium, along with its timing – 93 minutes, 20 seconds into the final game of the 2011-12 season – when he made Manchester City champions for the first time in 44 years.

Perhaps the most pertinent comparison on this occasion, however, was the evening in 2014 when Aguero delivered a decisive, dramatically late hat-trick to defeat Bayern Munich and convert defeat into triumph. A third European treble of the season beckoned when he advanced on goal with seven minutes remaining against Monaco: instead, he took the unselfish option, squared and Leroy Sane tapped in City’s fifth.

They take a two-goal lead to the principality, despite trailing twice. Aguero got two equalisers. A night that could have been defined by his wrongful caution for supposed simulation ended with an illustration that he remains one of the great goalscorers of his generation.

This was a comeback of a different kind, a personal progression from substitute to starter. He had not scored in his last six games for City. In Europe, his drought extended to 580 minutes before the butter-fingered Danijel Subasic allowed the first of his two equalisers to slide through his grasp. It was remarkable to think that, had Gabriel Jesus not broken a metatarsal against Bournemouth, Aguero would have probably begun on the bench. This indicated he has been underestimated by his own manager.

It was tempting to think that Pep Guardiola’s salvation came more by luck than judgment. As Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini can testify, Aguero is the rescuer nonpareil, the man with a capacity to make things happen when the odds seemed stacked against City.

This was one such occasion. They were dicing with European embarrassment and elimination, with further questions beckoning about their defending. Defeat would have brought suggestions of regression at a club who reached the semi-finals last season. Proof had already been supplied that one of Guardiola’s most contentious choices had backfired because, while Willy Caballero offered another example of his penalty-saving prowess, a goalkeeper who is supposed to be good on the ball but keeps on coughing up possession was to blame for Monaco’s equaliser.

Thoughts drifted – in as much as they could on a night of such frantic entertainment – to the exiled Joe Hart, City’s outstanding player in their first five years as a Champions League club. Perhaps, though, the crucial moment of the tie will prove Caballero’s terrific save to deny Falcao a hat-trick and Monaco a fourth goal.

It was that sort of occasion, a 5-3 that could conceivably have finished 9-8; or, indeed, many other scorelines. It was a game more in keeping with City’s identity than Guardiola’s. Control was conspicuous by its absence on a night of pure anarchy.

It highlighted they are a team of two halves; a fabulous front five and a flawed back five, with Yaya Toure handed the thankless task of trying to provide a bridge between them. Each of the attack-minded players excelled. Sane was electric and elusive, as he has been for much of 2017. Raheem Sterling scored and surged. David Silva and Kevin de Bruyne created chance after chance.

But with Falcao and Kylian Mbappe posing untold problems, Monaco took their tally to 111 goals for the season. City showed few sides are more liable to be counter-attacked. Yet Monaco conceded twice from corners in a manner to suggest these may be the two worst defensive sides left in the competition, as well as two of the best going forward.

Falcao’s threatened to be a triumphant return to England, a cathartic comeback to a country where he struggled for Manchester United and Chelsea. Mbappe looked a superstar in the making. City seemed on the brink of exiting the competition, losing their tempers and of suffering a thrashing. Instead came a glorious, chaotic win, one that does not guarantee progress but at least postpones a potentially brutal inquest.

All of Europe, Guardiola had said, would watch and “kill” City if they lost. His language in the build-up had been emotive: he spoke of Monaco’s “killers in the box.” City possessed a natural-born killer of their own; the smiling assassin, Aguero.