Man City will have to remember Chelsea reaction for Atletico Madrid match in Champions League

Manchester City have charged into their fateful fortnight with no holding back, giving it everything to break down Atletico Madrid in midweek before exchanging blow after blow with Liverpool to preserve their Premier League lead. Pep Guardiola has already rotated his team and will do so again for the same set of fixtures this week, albeit in different locations. As City go about trying to complete their Champions League job in Madrid they will have to remember what went wrong for them last year.

City enjoyed a major breakthrough under their manager last year in Europe, breaking their quarter-final hoodoo by beating Borussia Dortmund across both legs to earn a semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain. A late winner at the Etihad was backed up by another win in Germany to seal the victory.

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However, days later a flat City went out of the FA Cup at the semi-final stage at Wembley as they were beaten by Chelsea to end their hopes of securing an unprecedented Quadruple. Hakim Ziyech scored early in the second-half and the Blues were unable to respond.

Part of the problem that day was the number of changes made. Guardiola made eight from the XI that had won in Dortmund, and by that stage of the season a clear preference had emerged - his best players knew they would start in the Champions League and those out of form had to be content with games of lesser importance. Nobody was able to play themselves into form on that day.

However, the City boss also admitted that they had not readjusted properly after celebrating the joy of making the Champions League semi-finals. That is not something to be ignored - especially after so many painful exits -