LONDON: Manchester City have been on a steep learning curve in the Champions League but today’s last 16 first-leg clash with four-time European kings Barcelona offers a chance to show they are now serious contenders.
Last season’s exit at the identical stage also against Barca, 4-1 on aggregate, revealed City’s shortcomings in a squad good enough to win the Premier League but still lacking authority and discipline against Europe’s very best.
A year later, however, and City are approaching the tie with growing optimism, even if they will be missing midfield talisman Yaya Toure at the Etihad on Tuesday as he completes a three-match suspension for his red card against CSKA Moscow.
After finding their creative edge blunted in recent months, City’s attacking flair returned with a vengeance as they crushed Newcastle United 5-0 in the Premier League on Saturday.
In contrast, Barca’s lethal-looking frontline misfired badly at the weekend as their 11-match unbeaten run ended in a surprise 1-0 defeat by a well-drilled Malaga side.
City’s run to the last 16 a year ago was their best effort in the competition after two successive failures to survive the group stage and they will be buoyed by the way they sneaked into the knockout round this time, beating Bayern Munich and AS Roma.
Both of those victories were recorded without Toure.
On-loan midfielder Frank Lampard, a veteran of many battles with Barca from his Chelsea days, says that while the Catalans must be respected, City have the weapons to out-gun Barcelona and reach the last eight for the first time.
“You can admire and respect them so long as that doesn’t transmit into giving them too much space to do what they do best,” said Lampard, who was in the Chelsea side that beat Barca in the semis on the way to their 2012 Champions League triumph.
“I played against Barcelona when they were at their very best four or five years ago and they were absolutely flying -- in truth, there’s not much you can do when they play like that -- but we have players who can hurt them, too.”
In Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri, Manuel Pellegrini’s City side can score goals but keeping Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez quiet, as well as having 11 men on the pitch unlike last season, will be the key.
Messi scored in both legs last term and has recently been in scintillating form again, even if he was subdued against Malaga.
Barca defender Gerard Pique says City’s natural propensity to attack could play into his side’s hands as they seek an eighth successive place in the quarter-finals.
“City are a team that is more attack-minded and that will help us as it will be a more open game,” he said.
“We need to put (Malaga) behind us because on Tuesday we face the most important game of the year.” (Writing by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris)
In Milan, Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini has warned over the counter-attacking threat of Borussia Dortmund, but believes the Italians’ Champions League ambitions will shine through in their last 16 clash in Turin today.
Juventus underlined their status as Serie A champions in-waiting once again at the weekend after taking their lead over stuttering title challengers Roma to nine points.
Yet in Europe’s premier club competition, the two-time winners have yet to prove their worth: Juve crashed out at the group stages last season having been ousted by eventual champions Bayern Munich in the 2013 quarter-finals.
Juventus and Dortmund have some history in the competition: in 1997 the Germans famously beat the Italians, then defending champions, 3-1 in Munich and the clubs met several times before then.
Jurgen Klopp’s men are only now fighting their way back from a torrid start to the Bundesliga season, having secured a third consecutive win, away to VfB Stuttgart on Friday, to move further away from the relegation zone. But while Chiellini warned of the threat posed by the Germans, he believes Juventus’s ambition to make the final stages of the competition will come to the fore.
“Dortmund have some good players, a few who played well at the start of the season are coming back from injury, but over two legs anything can happen,” Chiellini said to Rai television.
“We can’t afford to gift them opportunities to launch counter-attacks, because they have players who excel when you give them space - although that tactic can be very risky.
“At the start of the (German league) season, they conceded a lot of goals from open play.
“We have a lot of respect (for them) but we really want to win this game, progress and keep our European dream alive: we really feel stronger than in recent seasons.”
Dortmund may have flirted with the relegation zone earlier this season, but the Germans -- currently 12th at 30 points behind Bundesliga pacesetters Bayern Munich -- can be unpredictable when it comes to high-octane European meetings.
As they struggled to keep pace on the domestic front, Klopp steered his men to the top of Champions League Group D, scoring 14 goals and conceding just one defeat, to set up a last-16 clash with Juventus.
Borussia have now scored 10 goals in their last three league wins, but Juve are unbeaten at home all season and suffered their only defeat, away to Genoa, in October. Juve coach Massimiliano Allegri, for one, is pleased at how his side are coming through a “key” stage of the season.
“This is a key period in the season, but we’re coming through it nicely,” Allegri said after Friday’s 2-1 win over Atalanta, in which a trademark Andrea Pirlo free kick secured the points for the Turin giants. AFP
