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Barcelona is a brilliant team, nobody can contest that and they are respected for that. In fact, their beautiful passing game commands respect from even their opponents. But when the opponent respects them too much, they are only playing into their hands the way Manchester City did. The team that Manuel Pellegrini chose for the match at Etihad felt more apt for a match at Camp Nou.
He chose to forego his usual 2-strikers 4-4-2 and played a counterattacking 4-4-1-1 setup with the surprising duo of Clichy and Kolarov playing on the left wing. He continued his preference of Demichelis over Lescott and Nastasic as the centre-back to pair with Kompany. Tata Martino on the other hand played a more predictable line-up with Alexis Sanchez on the right side and Neymar on the bench.
On paper this was supposed to be a mouth-watering goalfest, but the end result was anything but that. For all the talk about England’s strongest attacking force playing a shaky Barcelona defence, Tata got his tactics down quite well. A red card obviously helped out the Catalans in this regard.
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FIRST HALF
The initial phase saw a continuous stream of Barca possession with the Blues defence bombarded from every side. The surprising part was that the ‘usually attacking’ city players were content to sit back and absorb the pressure, maintaining a nice double line of defence. With both Clichy and Kolarov playing on the left side, the attacking potency of the Dani Alves-Alexis Sanchez combination was pretty much negated in the beginning.
The use of the two left backs also made sure that whenever Messi tried to follow his usual route of movement towards the right side, he was never given any space to breathe. On the whole, the initial 20 minutes was all an ineffective phase of possession for the Catalans.
David Silva playing as No. 10 with wide wingers
Soon, City began to get into the game as even four or five passes were enough to threaten on the counter. David Silva was instrumental in this regard as he completely vindicated his nickname of ‘Merlin’ all through the night. But, Pique was resolute in defence throughout the match as he completely shut down the physical presence of Alvaro Negredo. Barca’s deficiency against set-pieces was tested in the 25th minute on a David Silva cross that was nicely put into the box with Valdes barely able to touch the ball in the air. Fortunately for Valdes, the ball could not cross the line despite the physical attack by the City players.
Choking up the Barca right wing
The biggest disappointment of the night was perhaps the failure of the Clichy-Kolarov combination which never quite clicked in the offence department. Theoretically, having the best crosser in the team play at an advanced position was definitely not a bad idea, but a player who only relies on his pace was never going to amount to much against the quick Dani Alves. Even defensively Kolarov was completely exposed as he missed all five of his attempted tackles.
An interesting point to observe throughout the first half was the deep positioning of Jordi Alba who played a much more defensive role to keep the lightning quick Jesus Navas in control. As the match wore on, the impetus of attack shifted more and more towards the right wing for Man City.
SECOND HALF
Demichelis makes the fatal tackle
Pellegrini must have been the happier of the two managers as his team shutdown the offensive power of the Catalans. The half-time instructions were also clearly to attack much more than they did in the first half. But so often as not as it happens against Barcelona, City was unable to cope with them defensively with players going forward. In the 53rdminute, all City hopes of a famous win over Barcelona were shattered. Jesus Navas, down the right flank was dispossessed and Iniesta then sent a beautifully threaded through ball for Messi who was slide tackled wrongly on his leg by the desperate Demichelis. The referee took a dim view of the challenge in light of that being a goal scoring opportunity and the City defender was sent off with a penalty awarded to Barcelona. Messi converted the penalty and sent Barca onto a 1-0 lead in an away match.
To be fair to Demichelis, this had been a good performance by him even amidst a lot of criticism. He had been fairly steadfast in his challenges and he had committed very few errors till this point.
City then made two quick substitutions to bring on Nasri for Navas and Lescott for Kolarov. Fairly obvious substitutions those, but it was even more obvious that Nasri was going to be introduced at some point of time even before the red card. Nasri now took up a more central position with Silva and the overall shape of the Blues got very narrow.
City now playing a narrow formation
With the departure of Navas, Alba was free from his shackles and he began to play in his more liberal role. In fact, the match got opened up with the red card, and funnily enough Man City looked much more spirited then before. Nasri and Silva thrived in the narrow formation and chances came aplenty for both sides. City kept fighting and nearly pulled a goal in the 77th minute when David Silva skilfully controlled a cross in the Barca box with his chest, bringing the ball low for a volleyed effort. The ball was well hit but Valdes was able to get down and make the save.
City then made a like for like sub in introducing Dezeko in place of the tired Negredo.
The Catalans then struck the killer blow at the end of the match when all that City attacking opened up space behind them. Neymar slipped a clever pass for Dani Alves and their combo left Clichy and Lescott for dead as Alves slammed the ball through the legs of Joe Hart to end the match at 2-0.
ONTO CAMP NOU
Criticisms and doubts have regularly been raised on the defensive verve of the Barca side but time and time again they have silenced all their critics. This match was no different, as they completely shut off any threat that Negredo posed. Alba was brilliant in his defending as he made several crucial interceptions of Jesus Navas’ passes. Even the supposedly going downhill Dani Alves dominated his flank. Barcelona have a strong 2-goal away lead that they take to Camp Nou.
Man City on the other hand may have struck gold with the narrower formation working against the Catalans. With a 2-goal deficit and Aguero returning for the second leg, they would be bound to attack, attack and attack. The next leg would surely be a cracker of a match.
