In a four minute spell at the start of last night’s second half between Barcelona and Manchester City, a Lionel Messi shot struck Joe Hart’s post and an Edin Dzeko header powered towards Victor Valdes’ top left corner until the outgoing Catalan tipped the ball out for a corner. At the other end, Messi crossed the ball towards Cesc Fabregas, who left his foot in when Hart came to collect the ball. The ball pinged back to the other end, where Aleksandar Kolarov had City’s best chance to put his side ahead and reduce the deficit from Barça’s 2-0 triumph in Manchester.
Four good chances, no goals. Entertaining for the few neutrals in the 86,000 crowd, agony for the 5,500 travelling City fans trying to enjoy their first ever competitive game in Camp Nou.
The margins are fine at the highest level in sport – and that’s when officials get decisions right. It wasn’t a good night in Camp Nou for the referee and both sides were aggrieved at decisions which went against them as Barcelona triumphed 2-1 on the night and 4-1 on aggregate. The result was right, the scoreline suggested a Barca dominance which was absent for swathes of the 180 minutes.
“Against teams like City, Barcelona or no other team will dominate all 90 minutes,” admitted Barça coach Gerardo Martino. “We needed to know how to suffer in some moments.”
Though they are yet to go beyond the last 16 in the Champions League, City had the personnel and swagger to be fancied as favourites before the match when the draw was made, if not the European experience or a genius as decisive as Lionel Messi. They also had obvious deficiencies, chiefly a central defender to partner their peerless captain Vincent Kompany. Martin Demichelis’ presence on the pitch proved costly in the first leg, Joleon Lescott was rightly suspected as the weaker partner at the back in the second leg. And weaknesses are ruthlessly exploited by the best footballers in the world. Kompany had stated how tough it would be to overhaul Barcelona on the eve of the match, but he also asserted that anything can happen in football and recalled City’s title winning dramatics against Queens Park Rangers in 2012.
QPR are not Barcelona though and City struggled to find a breakthrough against the out of form Catalans who were much improved after the weekend’s defeat at Valladolid.
Barca were at full strength, City started with Sergio Aguero as their only attacker – a decision later defended by co-assistant manager Ruben Cousillas who said the Catalans were too strong to play two up front and that City had called the tactics right packing the midfield. Aguero was taken off at half time and his replacement Dzeko added impetus.
When Lescott handed Messi an opening and the Argentine zipped forward and lofted the ball over Hart to make it 1-0 after 67 minutes, their coach Manuel Pellegrini, banished to the stands after criticising the referee in the first leg, put his head in his hands. City were going out, and Pablo Zabaleta’s 78th minute dismissal darkened their mood before two late goals for either side from Kompany and Dani Alves.
After winning the League Cup 10 days ago, City have been eliminated from the FA Cup and the Champions League in the last four days, while none of their strikers have scored since the end of January.
Barca? For a team in crisis, their players prefer a half glass full rather than empty mentality.
“The season is good so far,” said captain Xavi Hernandez. “We’re in a cup final, we’re four points from lead in the Liga and we’re in the Champions League quarter finals. We get criticism, but this is normal at Barça.”
And Barça still have Messi.
“Messi is capable of winning a game on his own, as he has done so many times,” said Cousillas. “He can always invent something magic”. With City’s own Argentine star striker anonymous and suffering a hamstring injury, City could only watch in awe.
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