City head to Barcelona on Wednesday night in a bid to overturn the deficit from the first leg of their Champions League tie, with The Blues needing to overcome what currently stands as a 2-1 lead for the Catalan side. Whilst it isn’t likely, Blues will be hopeful it can be done.
They’ll certainly be hoping for a better performance than the first leg as well, which was a performance unbefitting of a side that wants to win the Champions League as soon as possible. In the end, we probably deserved to lose, but it could have been a lot worse had Lionel Messi’s penalty gone in injury time (or, indeed, the rebound that was diverted wide with the Argentine’s diving header). The consolation goal from Sergio Aguero mid-way through the second half provides hope that the difference can be overcome, and if the former Atletico Madrid man can find form in Catalonia he could be crucial on Wednesday.
City will be pleased to be going into the game with a large, injury-free, squad to pick from. They will also be pleased to see the return of Yaya Toure to the matchday squad, after he spent the last three Champions League games banned after a red card in the visit from CSKA Moscow in the group stages. Whilst we did manage to beat both Roma and Bayern Munich with him, and he didn’t look too big of a miss in those games, the effect of his absence was clear to see in the first leg against Barcelona, which was quite pedestrian at times when Yaya would have been more able to take control of the game and make something happen in midfield.
Barcelona on the other hand do have some absentees. Martin Montoya broke his cheekbone in Barcelona’s weekend win over Eibar, whilst Thomas Vermalaen (hamstring) and Sergio Busquets (ankle) are both expected to miss the second leg against City.
It’s difficult to see City coming back from a goal behind away to one of the best teams in the world, but it’s certainly possible if the defence holds up well. In reality, if Barcelona score first the tie is over, because that would require us to come back and win (at least) 3-1, which is even less likely than the current deficit. If City were able to get an early goal however, it could just tip the momentum in their favour, putting Barcelona on the back foot early on and pressuring them to keep hold of the lead which would by then be level on aggregate (however, away goals do come into play). Pellegrini will be hoping his players come into the game with a fierce mentality after the loss at Burnley on Saturday, which could just fire them up enough to get an admittedly unexpected – but, in theory, brilliant – result. Fingers crossed, everyone.
