Barcelona 2-1 Manchester City: Messi leads Barça to the next stage

Posted by: neydmin Posted date: March 12, 2014 In: Neymar news | comment : 0

Full-time: Barcelona 2-1 Manchester City
Goals: Lionel Messi (67′), Daniel Alves (91′)
Match date: March 12, 2014
Stadium: Camp Nou
Competition: UEFA Champions League
Barcelona line-up: Valdés, Jordi Alba, Mascherano, Piqué, Daniel Alves, Busquets, Xavi, Fabregas, Iniesta, Lionel Messi, Alexis Sánchez.

Barcelona has beaten Manchester City for second straight time, this time winning the game by 2-1, at the Camp Nou. With this result, the Blaugrana are through to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, overcoming their English opponents with a 4-1 aggregate result. Neymar was in the starting eleven, but once struggled to show his best game against a very physical side.

After coming out of the Etihad with a precious 0-2 win, Barcelona knew they had their fate in their own hands on this second leg encounter. Tato Martino didn’t risk anything and sent into the pitch the exact same line-up that have played so brilliantly in England roughly 3 weeks ago.

The opener arrived only in the second half, after a short pass from Cesc Fabregas to Lionel Messi that got mishandled by Lescott, allowing the Argentinian forward to go face to face against Man City goalkeeper. Even though his latest performance were a bit far from the level he has used us to, Messi didn’t waste such a golden opportunity and sent Barcelona to the lead with a classy chip that went beyond Joe Hart‘s reach.

Manchester City tried to get back into the game, but the damage done had been already quite heavy. Nevertheless, they reached the equalizer perhaps a bit too late, when Kompany tapped in a first header from Edwin Dzeko, after a corner-kick taken by James Milner on the right. Barça players still waved claiming for offside, but the goal was perfectly clean.

The lead was regained only when we were playing stoppage time and after a counter-attack play where Barça‘s right-back, Daniel Alves, finished it off without any trouble at all. Alexis Sánchez found Andrés Iniesta escaping Manchester City‘s defensive back line, sent him through a first-touch pass and the Spain international kept his composure as he went around Joe Hart and then assisted Daniel Alves for an easy tap-in. 2-1 for Barcelona, who have now joined Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid and PSG in the quarter-finals. Next week we’ll get to know the other 4 quarter finalists…

This Sunday the Blaugrana will return to action in La Liga, with a Barcelona vs Osasuna encounter set to be played in the Camp Nou, at 17:00 in Spain.

Sources: fcbarcelona.com / theguardian.com