Barcelona’s Ivan Rakitic lobs Manchester City out of Champions League
Barcelona 1 - 0 Man City
Ivan Rakitic 31
The phrase in Spanish is ganar sin despeinarse. It means to win without even having to mess your hair up and, though Manchester City did briefly threaten to make something implausible happen, they were powerless ultimately to prevent this being one of those occasions. They were outclassed for the most part and the only glimmer of consolation is that Barcelona, and Lionel Messi, on this form could leave even the most distinguished opponents on their knees.
Are Barça back to their exceptional best? They certainly gave that impression at times on a night when the number of chances Messi and his colleagues stacked up gave the narrow margin of victory a deceptive appearance.
Joe Hart put on one of the outstanding performances of his life to keep the score down and Messi must feel perplexed that he could decorate the game so elegantly yet be deprived of another goal for his personal collection. Messi brought the crowd to its feet, bewitched us with his footwork, found gaps that didn’t seem to exist and danced past opponents in a way that took the art of dribbling to its highest level. He did everything, in fact, apart from beat the opposition goalkeeper.
Hart’s brilliance earned him a long embrace at the final whistle from Luis Suárez and the Uruguayan’s face was one of wonder. Hart’s goalkeeping had prevented a rout and, amid that portfolio of second-half saves, it is just a pity from City’s perspective that Manuel Pellegrini’s other players could not be so inspired.
They had their chance in the 77th minute when Gerard Piqué brought down Sergio Agüero but Marc-André ter Stegen kept out the striker’s penalty and that save removed any lingering argument. Everyone knew from that point onwards that the quarter-finals would go ahead without a single English team.
City, unlike Arsenal and Chelsea, could not even claim they were particularly close at any stage. Barça’s football was dizzying at times, continuing where they had left off from the first leg. Messi looked absolutely determined to make up for that moment in Manchester when his stoppage-time penalty came back off Hart.
The four-times world player of the year was somewhere close to his exhilarating peaks and that, in football terms, is an exquisite form of bullying. James Milner made the mistake of diving in at one point. The nutmeg from Messi left him on his backside and, high in the stands, Pep Guardiola could be seen with his head in his hands, howling with laughter at the impudence of his former player. By that stage, Messi had already done the same to Fernandinho. Neymar, however, was the first. The nutmeg is football’s most patronising put-down; it happened to Fernandinho twice in a quarter of an hour during the first half. They were taking turns to humiliate him.
Neymar was bright, elusive and dangerous. Suárez was as busy as always. Mostly, though, it was a beautifully choreographed show from the little guy in the No10 shirt. At times Messi would just amble around but that slow walk was a deception. Suddenly he would be on the ball, picking up speed, causing mayhem. It was a masterclass.
Suárez and Neymar both struck a post during the first half. After the break, there was a disallowed goal from Jordi Alba and so many saves from Hart it was easy to lose count. City did at least start to play with a sense of adventure in that period. Their problem, nonetheless, was getting hold of the ball and not opening themselves to the swift, incisive counterattacking of Barça’s front three. Luis Enrique’s players kept the ball with so much more refinement than their opponents and when they did give up possession they hunted in a pack to get it back. Yaya Touré was on the game’s edges. Samir Nasri was removed at half-time, failing again on the big stage, and Vincent Kompany had another error-strewn night. City’s was a frequently panicked defence.
Pellegrini had at least abandoned the 4-4-2 system that played into Barça’s hands in the first leg but even a player with Silva’s qualities can look inferior in the presence of Andrés Iniesta. Pellegrini’s decision to play Bacary Sagna rather than Pablo Zabaleta made little difference and when the goal arrived, after 31 minutes, it was brilliantly constructed.
Messi, inevitably, was prominently involved and his curling pass, from right to left, to pick out Rakitic’s run was expertly delivered. Yet there was a lovely, deceptive touch, too, as he collected Alba’s pass and backed off Aleksandar Kolarov in one movement. Alba’s swift break out of defence had caught City on the break. Milner hurried back to double up on Messi with Kolarov but the little magician gives the impression sometimes he would not be fazed if there were half a dozen players trying to stop him. Messi simply kept advancing, floated the ball into Rakitic for the Croat to control the cross on his chest then clip his shot over City’s goalkeeper.
What followed from Hart was extraordinary, the highlight coming late on when he kept out Messi inside the six-yard area. Hart may never have played with greater authority but a club with City’s ambitions will not want to remember these occasions because of their goalkeeper’s heroics. Once again, they had come up short and the gap seems to be widening rather than getting any smaller.
Guardian
