Manchester City are out of the Champions League once again, after a 1-0 loss at Barcelona gave the Catalan side a 3-1 aggregate win, following on from their 2-1 win in Manchester last month. It marks probably the end of trophy-chasing for The Blues this season, and also the start of the run-in to the end of the season.
Despite needing to score at least two to win, Manuel Pellegrini opted to have just one player, Sergio Aguero, up front, dropping Edin Dzeko to the bench after Saturday’s loss against Burnley. Pablo Zabaleta and Gael Clichy also found themselves out of the team, with Sagna favoured over Zabaleta and Clichy suspended after his red card in the first leg. Navas was also dropped, but came on at half-time and improved the performance.
The first half started with Barcelona in control and in possession against a City fan, although that was to be expected. They hit the post early on and could have been leading, but it in fact took The Catalan side over half an hour to extend their aggregated lead, thanks to Ivan Rakitic. Lionel Messi, who put in a brilliant performance in such a big game, played a good cross in towards the Croatian Rakitic, who chested it down before lifting it over Hart from close-range. The goal had been coming, but it hit City where it hurt, and Barcelona could have had more before half-time.
The introduction of Jesus Navas at half-time for a Samir Nasri who looked unimpressive probably changed up the game in City’s favour. He injected some pace into the City team, and produced one of the best Blues chances of the game within minutes of coming on after he found his way past the full-back, before failing to find anyone with his final ball whilst there were players in the box. However, once the Spaniard had been introduced City certainly looked better, and came ever-so-close to getting back in the tie on 78 minutes, when Sergio Aguero was brought down in the box by a mix of Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano, and the Argentine stepped up to try and exact his revenge. However, his penalty was easily saved by Ter Stegen in the Barcelona goal, and that probably signalled the last of City’s hopes, as they eventually bowed out.
The performance of Joe Hart should be commended, as he looks to have returned to his brilliant best with a series of wonderful stops to deny all of Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar, keeping City in the game for large periods of the match. Some have said it’s his best performance since the 1-1 draw against Borussia Dortmund at Eastlands in 2012, and it would be difficult to argue against him after a sterling performance, on a day when it was needed.
The difference in quality between City and their Spanish opponents was clear to see in the game at the Nou Camp, as well as in the home tie, and it goes to show how much work City still have to do as a club if they want to reach the level of Barcelona and others. The potential is there, but there’s almost certainly another couple of years of work to do before we’re in a position to seriously be able to challenge the big boys of Europe.
Whilst the result and the European exit is disappointing to say the least, there’s still 9 games left of the Premier League season that we need to focus on, and although we’re probably not in the title chase anymore, we need to ensure we get second place and that we secure Champions League football for next season. To do that, we need to take it one game at a time, starting with the visit from West Brom this coming Saturday.
