A massive game that unfolded at the city of Manchester stadium Etihad yesterday saw two teams at loggerheads who fancy scoring goals. Ironically though City had to dig deep for most part of the game and strive towards damage control.Tactically a very intriguing encounter saw the first half span out in 3 phases of 15 minutes the first of which belonged to a quick passing to Barcelona, but citys resilience thwarted their attacks as they hardly were able to break into the 18 yard, the presence of kolarov and Clichy on the left negated barrage of runs by a lightning quick Alexis Sanchez and clever overlaps by the right fullback Dani Alves..The next 15 minutes saw a sharper city pressing harder for the ball and creating a few half chances to say the least, Alvaro Negredos work rate deserves special mention as the sturdy forward linked well with citys compact 5 man midfield.The presence of Yaya Toure and Fernandinho meant Barcelona had to be even more cautious in the last 15 minutes of the first half as City gained a foothold in the match, slowly but surely.! The first half whistle was more welcome for Barcelona than it was for City..! Contrary to the start of the first half city started the brighter of the two with the two fullbacks mastering up enough courage to go forward for overlaps..! Jesus Navas was caught by Sergio Busquets, in the far Right hand flank of the pitch Iniesta got the loose ball from Dani and launched an immediate counter attack, delivered a through ball to messi who rounded off a slow to react Demichelis and poof...!!!! City were reduced to 10.! Demichelis caught messi off the ball in an goal scoring opportunity, what followed was a penalty awarded to Barcelona and Red Card to Demichelis, though I think the foul was committed outside the 18 yards, but Messi added one more to his impressive goal tally from 12 yards nevertheless.! Barcelona were one up at the Etihad at the 54th minute and City one man down.! Interestingly though the Catalan giants were not allowed to run away with the Tie as a very gritty and unyielding city managed to blot out Barcelonas forward moves, Samir Nasris introduction in place of winger Jesus Navas saw a few counterattacks go in their favor as they nearly managed to sneak one through a silva-Nasri-Negredo-Nasri combination.Barcelona on the other hand wasted a few I think as they were not allowed to be comfortable on the ball, but at the fag end of the game in the penultimate minute when they seemed to be out of ideas on how to break citys stolid resolve down, the tired legs in the blue and white provided a chance to Dani alves to have a run into the box and have a crack at the goal to which he delivered complete justice through the legs of custodian Joe Hart, somewhat in contrast to what he did in an earlier chance which went wide. Hard luck to City but a very testing victory for Barcelona along with a clean sheet and two away goals..! But for a club who were playing in the knockout phases of the Champions League for the first time in their history it truly was a wholehearted appreciable performance even when depleted by a moment of error.! It was not a goal feast as expected by many, but good football is not always about that.!
Posted on: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 07:10:55 +0000
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