Its been yet another eventful Champions League night as Barcelona got the best out of Manchester City. But late drama in the end left Lionel Messi biting the dust.
Its been yet another eventful Champions League night as Barcelona got the best out of Manchester City. But late drama in the end left Lionel Messi biting the dust.
Possession stats state that Barcelona had the bulk of possession during the game against City. The first half was only one way traffic, as Barcelona took the lead through Luis Suarez's clinical finish into the bottom corner of Joe Hart's net in the 16th minute. Another promising attack by Barcelona saw Luis Suarez sidefoot Jordi Abla's low cross into the net in the 30th minute and revived Joe Hart's memory of the Uruguayan's phenomenal form with Liverpool in the Premier League last season.
While Luis Suarez was having a great day scoring goals, everything was against Lionel Messi, as the Argentine had a rare off day against Manchester City. It was Messi who lost possession in the centre of the park that led to his Argentine counterpart Sergio Aguero scoring past Ter Stegen in the 69th minute to give City some hope.
But City's hopes of turning the game around were diffused when Gael Clichy was shown a second yellow card for a late challenge against Dani Alves and was duly sent off. City then turned into a defensive unit as Bacary Sagna was brought on for attacking midfielder David Silva to help restrict Barcelona from scoring another goal. Messi had other plans as a neat one-two pass with Pedro saw him being awarded a late penalty for Zabaleta's clumsy challenge on him. But Messi squandered the advantage to pile more misery on City, as his spot kick was superbly saved by Joe Hart in the 93rd minute. The rebound header also went wide as Messi was left face down on the turf.
City have a huge task in their hand as they look to overturn a 2-1 deficit at the Nou Camp in a few weeks time. Barcelona may have the advantage with two away goals, courtesy of Luis Suarez, but the late penalty missed by Lionel Messi, ensured that Manchester City aren't out of this yet.
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