Manchester city have a mountain to climb if they want to get into the Champions League semi-final.
Their 3-0 defeat at Liverpool last week means that they need to score three unanswered goals on Tuesday just to take a quarter-final in extra time.
PEP Guardiola is considering a balance of his human of the city and the potential psychological trauma before the second leg against Liverpool
If the Reds can find the net at the Etihad, City will need five.
It is an unenviable task and Liverpool are huge favourites to make it to the Final four, especially given the confidence is detrimental to the city defeat “Manchester United” on Saturday.
But two teams in the history of the Champions League, faced with a similar problem and found a way to turn things around.
The team that turned a +3 goal loss the first match in the Champions League knockouts
| Team | The enemy | The first match | The second leg | Year |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deportivo | Milan | 4-1 L | 4-0 W | 2004 |
| Barcelona | PSG | 4-0 L | 6-1 W | 2017 |
In 2004, Deportivo de La coruña Milan trailed 4-1 after a disastrous defeat in Italy that saw Kaka, Andriy Shevchenko and Andrea Pirlo to harm. But two weeks later, they staged an improbable comeback, Fran and hitting the decisive goal 15 minutes from time after three goals in the first half blitz was stunned Milan.
Barcelona have produced more sensational battle against PSG last season.
The Spanish giants were shocked 4-0 in the French capital, and despite dragging the aggregate score back to 4-3 only 50 minutes of the return match, counter-strike Cavani left Barcelona need three more goals in the remaining 28 minutes.
They were still in search of these three objectives, two minutes of normal time to play. Unbelievable, but thanks to some inspiration from Neymar and stylish image from Sergi Roberto, they got them as PSG crumbled.
Guardiola’s own history of overturning the first leg defeat in the Champions League ties, though not spectacular. His teams went to two of the seven cases they lost the first match.
Record PEP Guardiola after losing in the first match of the Champions League tie
| Year | Team | The enemy | The first match | The second leg | Progress? |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Barcelona | Inter Milan | 3-1 L | 1-0 W | No |
| 2011 | Barcelona | Arsenal | 2-1 L | 3-1 W | Yes |
| 2012 | Barcelona | Chelsea | 1-0 L | 2-2 d | No |
| 2014 | Bayern | Real Madrid | 1-0 L | 4-0 L | No |
| 2015 | Bayern | Port | 3-1 L | 6-1 W | Yes |
| 2015 | Bayern | Barcelona | 3-0 L | 3-2 W | No |
| 2016 | Bayern | Atletico Madrid | 1-0 L | 2-1 W | No |
His team Barcelona came away from the 2-1 defeat at Arsenal in 2011 with a 3-1 win at the camp Nou. And his Bayern Munich side responded to a shock 3-1 loss in Porto with furious their opponents 6-1 in the return match in 2015.
The odds are stacked against them, but Deportivo and Barcelona has shown that it can be done…
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Sourse: skysports.com
