Tonight’s game in Manchester won’t be as easy as some people make it out to be. Also, there’s a lot riding on this game and both teams will want to get it right. Barcelona will want to score at least an away goal and City will be looking for two goals to make the passage easier for when they meet the Catalans on their own turf for the second leg.
Both teams are up for it and despite Barcelona’s setback in the league this weekend, the Catalans will not make it an easy ride for City tonight at the Etihad.
Concerns for Manchester City might be their shaky defense. While Vincent Kompany looks set to start, it remains to be seen who Pellegrini will pair him with to control the back four.
Luis Suárez is not exactly firing on all four cylinders at the moment and looks like a shadow of his former self in his Liverpool days.Having said that, Suárez paired up with Neymar and Messi make up one of the most exciting attacking trios in the world, so City had better watch out!
Pellegrini knows Barcelona very well having spent 9 of his managerial years in the Spanish League. He knows what the Catalan giants are capable of and will not want to make any mistakes tonight.
With a Barcelona team set to attack City from the get go, it remains to be seen what sort of tactics Manuel Pellegrini will deploy against Luis Enrique’s team. City are not a team that park the bus and neither is the manager known for such tactics.
Two players that Barcelona will want to control tonight are Sergio Aguero and David Silva. Failure to do so will mean goals for sure, so Gerard Piqué and Sergio Busquets both have their work cut out in this evening’s game.
