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MOTD: Barcelona 1-0 Manchester City (3-1 agg)

By on March 18, 2015

We can imagine how, many years from now, a retired Fernandinho will be sitting around a warm hearth with his grandchildren, wistfully describing the night when he was nutmegged by erstwhile football legends Neymar and Lionel Messi. James Milner and Martin Demichelis, too, befell one of a footballer’s greatest disgraces at the deft foot of Messi. In every sense of the word, Barcelona humiliated Manchester City, bar only the scoreline.

With a breathless display, Barcelona knocked the wind out of Manuel Pellegrini’s men and put them back in their place with a gusto arguably not seen from the Catalans since the days of Pep Guardiola. Though Barca were alleged by many to have declined over the past year, the gap between these two sides has only widened since their meeting last season. The English were looking forward to the match as their last hope in the Champions League, but the match only went further to highlight the Premier League’s troubles in recent European competitions.

Messi ran the show — City’s side merely played supporting roles. Not only was every touch of his boot filled with intent — even when few were necessary, as a 0-0 draw would have sufficed tonight — but beauty as well. The English champions were reduced to running in circles, though credit must be given to them for never growing tired; indeed, they kept the scoreline itself from adding to the embarrassment. City would’ve needed still another goal to extend the match into extra-time even if Aguero had buried his late penalty.

With 10 saves, Joe Hart may as well have been the only thing between Barca and the goal— bar the post, which frustrated Barcelona more than once — a valiant effort given the state of City’s attack and hopes. Just six minutes in Neymar was clean through down the left side of the box after Dani Alves caught Fernandinho napping on the ball, only for the Brazilian’s low, near post effort to rebound off the inside of the post and trickled across goal.

But City were naive if they thought they’d weathered the storm: it was just beginning. Messi forced Hart into a kick-save after ten minutes following a lovely one-two and passage of play (the Argentine and Neymar each nutmegging Fernandinho in the space of two minutes), before his free-kick not long afterwards curled inches over the crossbar from twenty-five yards. Twenty-six minutes in Messi drew a challenge from David Silva, who went in the book, and again curled the resulting free-kick over with Hart sprawling. Silva, “the magician”, was subject to greater powers than his own.

Messi was heavily involved in the opener as well, when a quick counter was launched by Jordi Alba after a cliche Barcelona passing sequence out of the back. Alba fed it wide right to Messi, who attracted multiple defenders before cutting back and clipping a beautiful diagonal ball over the City back-line to the run of Ivan Rakitic. The Croatian even had enough time to chest the ball down before flicking a lovely finish over the onrushing Hart.

Rakitic looked a natural successor to Xavi all night and curled a twenty-five yard free-kick inches over soon after the goal. On the brink of the half, Neymar’s through-ball put Suarez in on goal, but the Uruguayan’s poked shot bounced away off the outside of the post. Barca’s dominance only increased in the second period with both Andres Iniesta and Alba forcing top-notch saves out of the Englishman before Suarez found the side-netting. An incredible kick-save denied Neymar, and Hart just recovered right as Messi thought he’d turned to find an open goal late on.

City had come back into the match considerably by the closing stages but never really threatened until Aguero drew a suspicious penalty out of the referee. It was only fitting that Andre ter Stegen pulled out strong hands to deny Aguero’s poorly placed penalty — admittedly, with a little directional guidance from Javier Mascherano.
Man of the Match: Lionel Messi

Homepage photo credit: L.F. Salas on Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.