London (AFP)

Convincing winner of Real Madrid in the eighth, Manchester City seems to have passed a milestone and have never been so close to a European coronation in the Champions League. But on Saturday in the quarterfinals against Lyon, his hopes will rest a lot on a defense often pointed out.

"One of the most important things today is that we made no mistakes behind," said Pep Guardiola after the round of 16 second leg won with the same score as the first leg (2-1) against a Real who had never known a European elimination under the orders of Zinédine Zidane.

The relief was palpable in the Catalan who, the day before, in a pre-match press conference, had made this area the key to a possible success in C1 this year.

"More than conceding goals, it's the way you concede them" that is a problem, he admitted.

Defensive errors in the Champions League "punish you enormously. We know that and we want to improve that gradually and to win this competition, we must improve in this sector," he added.

An observation which is the fruit of a dangerous bet - and lost, for the moment - made last summer: to accept the departure of the "rock" Vincent Kompany without compensation in the axis.

At the end of August, Aymeric Laporte's serious injury, which occurred very early in the exercise, was immediately problematic.

- Strength regain -

City have spent a good part of the season looking for the right combination behind between Nicolas Otamendi, who has often seemed overwhelmed, John Stones (26) and his fragile physique, Eric Garcia (19) too tender and Fernandinho (35) came down from the middle but who was ultimately the most reliable of those four at an improvised post for him.

The result: avoidable defeats at Norwich or against Wolverhampton clearly prevented them from defending their league title against an intractable Liverpool.

With 35 goals conceded, Pep's men had the second best defense in the Premier League, just like the previous season, after being first in this area in 2017-2018.

But this owes a lot to a second part of the season where they took almost half the goal (12) than in the first leg (23).

A promising return to solidity which corresponds to Laporte's return to the field.

Of the fifteen league matches in which he took part, eleven times the cage of the "Citizens" has remained untouched.

Renewing the performance against Lyon on Saturday (9:00 p.m.) in the quarter-finals would be another encouraging sign.

- Rebuild around Laporte -

In two and a half years in the north of England, the Frenchman has even won 50 of the 59 league games he has played, breaking the record of Didier Drogba who had put 60 games with Chelsea to reach this bar.

Beyond the C1, Laporte should be the central element of the Mancunian defense in the years to come.

City have never hesitated to put their hands in their pockets in this sector, with sometimes resounding flop, like Eliaquim Mangala snatched from Porto for nearly 50 million euros or John Stones bought from Everton for 55 million EUR, but sometimes success like the 65 M EUR paid to Athletic Bilbao for the Frenchman.

On the sides of the defense, it is 57 million euros for Benjamin Mendy, 52 million EUR for Kyle Walker or 65 million EUR last summer for Joao Cancelo, which were disbursed with relative success.

However, shopping has already started with the official arrival of Dutch international defender Nathan Aké for EUR 45m, but Diego Carlos of Sevilla or Kalidou Koulibaly of Naples are also on Guardiola's shopping list, according to the press.

© 2020 AFP