Manchester City 1-2 BarcelonaManchester City: Sergio Aguero 69
Barcelona: Luis Suarez 16, Luis Suarez 30, (Messi misses Pen)
Perhaps the most dispiriting part for Manchester City came from that numbing feeling that, if anything, the gulf has widened. They have suffered plenty of times in this competition but has there ever been a time when the imbalance of talent has felt so extreme? Barcelona did not just outplay them, they emphatically put them in the place and the damage will almost certainly be irreparable.
It was a masterclass from Lionel Messi in that opening 45 minutes for Barcelona when Luis Suárez scored twice, Dani Alves hit the crossbar and Manuel Pellegrini’s team stumbled to the interval like a side that needed to be administered smelling salts rather than half-time oranges.
Sergio Agüero’s goal midway through the second half does change the complexion slightly before the return leg at Camp Nou on 18 March but City’s momentum was quickly lost when a collision with Alves left Gaël Clichy being shown his second yellow card of the match. Eleven-v-eleven, Barça had frequently toyed with their opponents; 11-against-ten, a comeback felt implausible even for a side with their record for feats of escapology and by the end they were just grateful to limit the damage.
Messi’s penalty, three minutes into stoppage time, could have made the next game feel like a formality but Joe Hart kept out the shot and Barça’s chief tormentor headed the rebound wide of an open goal. It was a reprieve on a night when Pellegrini, as well as his players, came up badly short.
The Manchester City manager’s decision to operate with both Edin Dzeko and Agüero in attack certainly looks misjudged bearing in mind the first way to stop Barcelona is usually to try to crowd out midfield and restrict space. Yet it was not just Pellegrini’s tactics that felt wrong. Once again, some of his most accomplished footballers appeared to be afflicted by an inferiority complex. It has become the recurring theme of their Champions League story and the cold harsh reality is that they are still waiting to beat an elite team when their opponents have something riding on the match too. What happened here was all the more demoralising given that this is not even the greatest Barça team we have seen.
Yet Luis Enrique’s side shimmered here with the highest quality and, inevitably, Messi was at the epicentre of it. The Argentine’s flashes of brilliance seemed designed to remind City of what constitutes true greatness, at one point showing the ball to David Silva then slipping it through his legs and darting away.
Suárez took his goals with great expertise and, though it always feels slightly strange seeing Barcelona having this much fun without Xavi Hernández in their starting XI, there was yet another reminder of Andrés Iniesta’s enduring class.
When the opposition is this refined, the only way to survive is to play with the highest levels of concentrations and try to eliminate mistakes. Unfortunately for City, it quickly became apparent that this was wholly beyond them. Vincent Kompany’s mistake for Suárez’s first goal was just another sign of his season-long regression. Kompany had made the crowd hold its breath, with a skewed clearance that threatened to become an own goal, after barely a minute.
Shortly afterwards, Fernando’s lapse allowed Suárez’s to run free. The former Liverpool player could not fully take advantage but it was the carelessness that preceded it that must have alarmed Pellegrini.
For long, awkward spells, City were emphatically put in their place. Alves and Jordi Alba attacked like whippets from the full-back positions and, Suárez being Suárez, everyone just knew how determined he was to leave his fingerprints all over the occasion.
For City, Yaya Touré was badly missed but it would be generous on them to presume that the outcome was greatly influenced by his absence. City’s shortcomings ran through the entire team and Messi is a brutal opponent, slaloming between players, dancing past challenges and generally playing football that belonged to a higher level. That nutmeg on Silva felt like he was marking out his territory. It said one thing: you might be good but we are considerably better.
Did City panic? They certainly froze. After 16 minutes, Messi clipped in a cross from the right and Kompany appeared to lose the trajectory of the ball. What should have been a routine headed clearance instead left the ball popping up invitingly for Suárez to finish with a brilliant and instinctive left-foot shot into the far corner.
By half-time, it was almost a surprise the away side had restricted themselves to only one more goal. Messi, again, was involved, darting past Fernando and then Pablo Zabaleta. Alba crossed from the left and Suárez had anticipated where the ball was heading, dashing into the six-yard area to get there in front of Martín Demichelis and nudge his shot past Hart in the City net.
Perhaps a little bit of complacency crept in from Barcelona after the interval. Dzeko had a good chance three minutes into the second half and when they did score in the 69th minute it emanated from Messi, of all people, being slow to react and Clichy taking the ball off his toe. Silva’s flick, from Fernando’s pass, was a thing of beauty, taking out three defenders in one go and Agüero swept his shot past Marc-André ter Stegen.
Briefly, there was the sense something extraordinary might be about to happen. Yet Clichy’s sending off came five minutes later and Messi will reflect on a bittersweet night given what happened after Zabaleta had tripped him for the penalty.
Daniel Taylor, Guardian
