1st Half:
4th minute: Messi gives a long ball to Neymar, but their CB cuts it.
8th minute: City get a FK after a Neymar error and a Mascherano badly timed tackle. Not really a threat.
10th minute: Iniesta-Neymar-Messi, who is blocked inside the area by Demichelis. Great first time dribble from Ney on Zabaleta.
12th minute: Suarez gets a clear chance, decides to pass instead, gets it back, but his shot is wide.
15th minute: GOAL FROM SUAREZ! A cross from the right from Messi, Suarez can’t head it, but it bounces off Kompany’s back and Suarez buries it with his left. MCI 0 x 1 FCB.
17th minute: The usual Camp Nou’s Catalan Independence chant heard at the Etihad.
21st minute: Ridiculous “cross” from Alves, on a decent chance upfront…
25th minute: Superb through ball from Neymar, but Suarez is stopped by Hart.
30th minute: GOAL FROM SUAREZ! Messi dribbles 3, gets it to Alba with a lot of space, who crosses to the penalty area and Suarez gets to it before Demichelis. MCI 0 x 2 FCB.
31st minute: Superb lofted through ball from Messi, but Neymar can’t pull the Vaseline.
35th minute: FCB has already managed 3 shots on target, the same we achieved at the Camp Nou in 94 minutes against Malaga. City is still to hit it.
38th minute: Superb tackle from Pique to end a City counter.
43rd minute: Alves gets a lot of space to run, tries to cross and hits the bar.
45th minute: City gets their first shot on target, which is saved by Stegen.
Verdict: We crushed City.
Had 6-7 clear chances, scored 2 goals (we deserved at least one more). Messi has been superb, directly creating both goals, and Neymar is indeed quiet, but already gave 2-3 great though balls that weren’t properly used.
It’s all happening through the flanks (as the coach wants), but we are not being overrun at all in the midfield. Pellegrini’s choice to use Demichelis has again helped us, but using Fernando instead of Fernandinho was his key mistake. Fernando is far from being the player Fernandinho is, and his influence on the game is irrelevant.
This has been a great match so far, and if the team gets Messi and Neymar on shooting conditions, we could even seal the tie already.
2nd Half:
48th minute: Mascherano blocks Nasri with a great sliding tackle. City started the 2nd Half much better and got several corners. Dzeko got a clear chance in front of Stegen, but headed it very softly. City, in 3 minutes, matched their shots on target from the 1st half: one.
53rd minute: After a Busquets’ error, Aguero gets free of Mascherano and shoots wide.
55th minute: Pique blocks a backwards pass from Dzeko. City much more dangerous so far.
57th minute: City completes another weak header, but keeps piling on clear chances.
61st minute: Pellegrini gets Fernandinho in for Nasri. Could cause us trouble on the middle.
65th minute: Mascherano times his tackle horribly, and Aguero makes a dangerous cross that Pique manages to block.
67th minute: Bony in for Dzeko.
68th minute: Clichy robs it from Messi, Fernadinho (of course) gives it to Silva, who, with his backheel, gives it to Aguero to score. MCI 1 x 2 FCB.
69th minute: Luis Enrique takes Rakitc off for Mathieu. Here we go with a double pivote away, then.
73rd minute: Clichy sent off for hitting Alves’ knee.
74th minute: Adriano for Alves. Alves apparently injured.
75th minute: Great play between Alba and Suarez, but Zabaleta blocks the catalan from shooting. Our clearest chance on the 2nd half.
76th minute: Our first “shot” on target, from Messi, is saved by Hart.
77th minute: Sagna for Silva. Pellegrini goes defensive.
79th minute: Pedro for Neymar. Neymar gave 2-3 greats passes, but was very quiet today.
85th minute: 3rd weak “attacking” foul the ref gives against us. Making up for his red to Clichy.
90th minute: Messi scores a Messi goal, but correctly ruled offside.
92nd minute: Zabaleta penalty on Messi, after a 1-2 with Pedro.
93rd minute: Hart saves Messi’s penalty, who can’t score from the rebound either. The end.
Final Ruling:
1st half was ours, 2nd was theirs until Clichy’s red.
City overran us from the start of the 2nd half until Clichy was sent off. And we only managed 2 shots on target during the last 45 minutes, 1 from a weak lobbed Messi finish, and the second for Messi’s penalty.
City came back focused and suffocated us for pretty much the whole time they had 11 player on the second half. Fernandinho coming in, as I predicted, gave them a goal in just 7 minutes.
The result is great, considering it’s an away match on English soil, but considering how dominant we were on the 1st half, and the penalty we had on the last play of the match, we should have scored at least 2 more goals.
Now, we can even lose 0-1 at the Camp Nou, but now Pellegrini knows his midfield: Yaya and Fernandinho will play, and will cause us trouble. I just hope we don’t play with double pivotes due to that, like we did when PSG came visiting.