Leonardo Jardim: 'AS Monaco will not change style for Manchester City match'

Leonardo Jardim has claimed that it is in AS Monaco's DNA to play attacking football and he will therefore not alter their style for the Champions League double-header with Manchester City.

The Ligue 1 pacesetters currently lead the scoring charts across Europe's top divisions, finding the net 76 times in 26 league games so far this campaign.

Despite preparing his side in the same way as any other match, Jardim concedes that Man City head into the two-legged last-16 affair as favourites due to their superior spending power over the past couple of seasons.

"It does not matter who you play against, Paris Saint-Germain, Tottenham, Manchester City, whoever. It is in our DNA to play the way we play," he told reporters. "This will be our 11th game [in the competition]. We played four qualifiers, six in the group stage and we have always played the same way.

"City are strong in the transition, they have five forwards at some point when they pour forward. They are good defensively too, but we need to create difficulties for them and put them under pressure. We have watched them in their past five or six games. I am very realistic.

"The two teams love to play football and have technical players. The two coaching staffs work well. But in other respects we cannot compare the teams, such as in their respective transfer market weight."

Monaco were victorious against Arsenal at this stage two seasons ago and also beat Tottenham Hotspur twice during the group phase of this year's competition.