It was another night of magic at Camp Nou. Barcelona dismissed English heavyweights Manchester City with a 2-1 victory in front of 85,000 strong last night at home. After a week of uncertainty and a loss to mid-table Real Valladolid, many fans and critics alike were worried about how El Blaugrana would respond at home to a side that has potential to do damage.
Tata Martino, who’s also been under a lot of criticism in recent weeks, knew how important this match would be for both the club and essentially his career. While his first season hasn’t been terrible, he knows the board and fans want results. An early Champions League exit would most likely mean a sacking for Martino as coach. Tata fielded a strong starting line-up. The back four consisted of Pique, Jordi Alba, Dani Alves, and Javier Mascherano. Midfield consisted of arguably the best duo in football history, Xavi and Iniesta along with Cesc Fabregas. Messi, Neymar, and Sergio Busquets rounded out the line-up up front. Pedro and Alexis Sanchez would start from the bench, in a move that I found myself in agreement with. Starting Messi and Neymar up front made the most sense to me.
The game started off with a surprisingly high tempo from City that most of us expected. Being down 0-2 on aggregate, City knew they needed to score a goal fast and early to take the momentum away from Barcelona. Goalkeeper Victor Valdes, Dani Alves, and Leo Messi ultimately decided this tie over two legs. Valdes was spectacular in stopping any threat he faced from City’s counter-attack. One stellar save in the second half put any hopes of qualifying for the quarterfinals to bed for the Manchester giants. Controversy surrounded the referee in this match, who seemingly disallowed a goal that was onside as well as ignored a clear foul by Lescott on Leo in the box early in the first half. Nonetheless, the teams went into half-time scoreless with the Catalan giants only 45 minutes away from advancing to the quarterfinals.
In the second half, Barcelona turned up the heat a bit more on City. Forcing them to sit back and defend and hope for a lucky counter-attack break. City’s defenders looked tired and started to take unnecessary fouls on the Barça midfielders. Cards were flying in this game to say the least. The magical moment came from Leo Messi in the 67th minute. Leo, who nearly scored twice in the first half but was unlucky, tore through the City defense, leaving Lescott in the dust to strike first in the match. Barça now lead 1-0 in the game and 3-0 on aggregate. An impossible task for City just became even more impossible as time ticked by ever-so-slowly. City now needed three goals to go through on away goals rule with just about twenty minutes of play left. Not long after the first goal, Zabaleta was sent off for arguing with the referee about a suspected penalty that should have been given to his teammate Dzeko in the box. The ref let it go and an already frustrated City let out their tempers on the referee. City were now down to ten men, needing three away goals in a span of 12 minutes.
City got their consolation goal in the 89th minute when defender Vincent Kompany made it 1-1 with an assist from Dzeko. It was too little too late for City, however. It was 3-1 on aggregate with the match heading into stoppage time. To make matters worse, just two minutes later Dani Alves converted a pass from Andres Iniesta to make it 2-1 on the evening and 4-1 on aggregate. In both legs, Leo Messi and Dani Alves scored and were the difference as Barça sent the Englishmen packing from this year’s tournament. Messi passed Real Madrid legend Raul for most goals in the Champions League with a single club (67) as the 26-year old magician continues to break records in Europe. This is also Barcelona’s seventh straight Champions League quarterfinals appearance. For a team that hasn’t been winning in ‘style’ recently, they seem to be doing quite alright in Europe. Opponents in the quarterfinals include Liga rivals Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid as well as French giants PSG. At this stage in the tournament, whoever Barça face will be a tremendous mountain to climb. However, after this performance against a big side in England, it proves that Tata’s men are up for any challenge and will give it their all, regardless of outcome. A final quote from the post-match press conference with Martino summed it up perfectly: “This game calms things down for a while,” Gerardo Martino said. “But in the weekend we will be back in the eye of the storm again.”
Visca Barça!
Barça Vanguard 