Manchester City vs Barcelona a few quick thoughts
Dan Tracey
November 2, 2016
2,213 Views
- Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City exacted a modicum of revenge last night for their Catalan capitulation a fortnight ago with a stunning 3-1 win over Barcelona last night at The Etihad
- It was highly charged atmosphere as a City side which this time included Sergio Aguero started the game brightly and had a huge shout for a penalty within the first 10 minutes
- Raheem Sterling and Samuel Umtiti had a coming together with Umtiti clearly felling the England international in the area, with Sterling on the ground and looking for a penalty he wasn’t too impressed when he was handed a yellow card for his efforts
- It was an incredibly harsh decision by Viktor Kassai the Hungarian Referee. Whether it was a penalty could perhaps be up for debate but to book Sterling just added insult to injury
- And City’s night took a turn for the worse when halfway through the first half Barcelona got their noses in front
- A counter-attacking masterpiece which saw the move started by Lionel Messi within a blink of the eye was now charging towards the City area. A well executed pass from Neymar saw Messi the creator then become the poacher as he was on hand to score his 90th Champions League goal.
- A real smash and grab if every you saw one
- The question now was how many would Barcelona go on and win by?
- But this was a much more spirited City side than the one we saw two weeks ago and they took the game to Barcelona in search of an equaliser
- And their efforts would be rewarded 6 minutes before the break
- With City pressing high up the pitch they managed to box Sergi Roberto in, he made the critical error of playing the ball square across the defence. The errand pass was picked up by Sergio Aguero who linked up well with Sterling
- All the former Liverpool man had to them do was look up and square the ball to Ilkay Gundogan who was on hand to slot the ball home and level things up at at 1-1
- All of a sudden it was game on and City went into the break full of belief that they could really tasked the game to Barcelona
- And after the restart they did exactly that. It seemed as if the first 45 minutes were just some light sparring in comparison to the first as both sides decided that attack was the best form of defence
- It really was end to end stuff and it made for an exhalirating second half
- And it would be City to would get their noses in front just 6 minutes after the break
- City were awarded a free-kick which Kevin Dr Briggs stepped up to take
- His effort was near perfect as the helpless Marc Andre ter-Stergen watched the ball crash last him and into the net to give City the lead
- The question then whether City could hold on to their slender advantage
- Barcelona certainly had enough going forward but with no Jordi Alba, Gerard Pique or Andre Iniesta they were suffering in other areas of the pitch
- But for all their deficiencies there attack line was still a dangerous threat and that threat was no more apparent when they once again hit City on the counter attack
- John Stones’ clearance unfortunately fell to Luis Suarez and the break was on, as he bore down on goal instead of shooting he cut the ball back to Andre Gomes
- City fans had hearts in mouths as he shaped to shoot only for his effort to cannon back of the crossbar
- Perhaps this was going to be City’s night?
- Well it certainly was when Gundogan was on hand to score his second of the game
- With Barcelona searching for a an equaliser they left themselves more exposed and City took full advantage of this
- Gundogan was once again the right man in the right place at the right time as he slammed the ball home to secure all three points and cap off a memorable night in Manchester
- City are now just one win from qualification, although Barcelona still top the group.
- Is this the night where City finally join Europe’s elite? Pep Guerrilla certainly thinks so but they can only truly be in the elite if they go on to win the competition at the end of the season
- Still that takes absolutely nothing away from last night’s very impressive victory
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