Match date: 24 February 2015

Manchester City left it to their last game in the group stage to qualify, but their second place finish meant that they were going to draw the winner of another group and it just happened to be Barcelona, with the Catalan side beating the English club when the two sides meeting in the same stage of last year’s competition.

Manuel Pellegrini opted to start both Sergio Agüero and Edin Džeko in a 4-4-2/4-2-2-2 meaning that Manchester City were not theoretically going to match up with Barcelona in midfield. It was a sign of Pellegrini’s intent, however, and a good risk Manchester City at home.

Luis Enrique continued with a 4-3-3, with a front three of Messi, Suarez, and Neymar supported by Iniesta, Rakitic, and Busquets. Mascherano started alongside Pique at centre back.

Defensive Shapes and Pressing

Barcelona, as expected, had majority of the possession with about 63% of the ball and they were by far the better side in the first half. They put together some excellent moves where Manchester CIty could not get close to the ball, including a move that ended in a header by Rakitic into Hart’s chest (though the Croatian was offside) and more crucially, Suarez’s second goal that was the result 23 pass move. With Barcelona having such effective control of the ball, Manchester City began to defend incredibly deep with Džeko and Agüero both behind the ball. Their positioning along with a more conservative approach by Alba and Dani Alves made it hard for Manchester City to launch counter attacks when they won the ball back. Below is a good example of Manchester City’s low block defending.

Notice, as well, the space between the Manchester City midfield and Džeko and Agüero. This space allowed the likes of Iniesta, Rakitic, and Messi to pick up the ball relatively freely and it was movement of Barcelona that allowed these spaces to open up. Excellent examples of their movement can be seen in the build up to Suarez’s second goal and Rakitic’s header, both of which were mentioned above.

When Barcelona did not have the ball, they defended in a mid block with both Messi and Neymar getting in line with Iniesta and Rakitic fairly quickly. Being outnumbered in midfield, it was hard for Fernando and Milner to get on the ball often. David Silva and Nasri would move in field often, but Barcelona were good at cutting off the passing lanes in the central areas and forcing the likes of Kompany and Demichelis to play the ball into the full backs, which was a pressing trigger for Barcelona. In the screen capture below you can see Jordi Alba rushing in to apply pressure on Zabaleta.

This was clearly a tactic that Enrique stated to his players; when Manchester City have possession between the centre backs and Barcelona are defending in its mid block, they look to force them into the full backs. It was immediately evident when Messi showed good work rate to make one of the first tackles of the game by putting Clichy under a huge amount of pressure. Suarez was pivotal in this approach and did an excellent job of forcing the centre backs in a position where they had to play to a full back if they wanted to play forward. Barcelona made a lot of their tackles in Manchester City’s half, sometimes because of the pressing on the full backs, but many of them were simply because of Barcelona’s pressure in Manchester City’s half. When the home side won the ball back, the ball carrier was immediately harried by a Barcelona player and the away side were able to win the ball back and sustain their pressure.

City’s Attack, Džeko and Agüero

Manchester City struggled greatly in the first half to create any chances and completed just one pass in Barcelona’s penalty area in the first 45 minutes. When they did get the ball, they looked to Silva or Džeko, who drifted into the wide left area when Silva moved inside, but overall, Barcelona were comfortable and allowed Manchester City to play the ball into the wide areas, closing out the central passing lanes as mentioned above.

It was only in the second half that Manchester City looked threatening and their best attacks came early on in the half when they won two quick corners and saw Džeko place a free header from the six yard box right into the hands of Ter Stegen. It was, at the time, Manchester City’s best chance and one that should have seen them at 2-1. Barcelona looked vulnerable during the opening stages of the the second half as Manchester City sustain possession and won the ball back quickly, with one of these spells resulting in a good chance for Nasri, who had his shot blocked by Mascherano. One of the reasons that the home side looked at their best during these times was that Nasri and Silva were looking to overload one side of the pitch. In the move before the second corner of that half, the one that Džeko should have scored, Nasri received the ball in a central position and moved it to the left side of the pitch where City had good numbers.

Džeko was effective in the air, but Manchester City were not keen on playing long balls up to him because they wanted to play the ball on the floor as their first option is always Agüero, especially when they looked to counter. The Argentine did well on the night, grabbing a goal after being first two a loose ball, and he certainly had the beating of Mascherano who seemed to mark his compatriot when Agüero was on the ball in threatening, central areas.

Messi

Another Argentine that had an excellent match. The Barcelona man has been used on the right for much of the season now as Enrique looks to have found the best way to fit Neymar, Suarez, and Messi into the same team. Messi is still given a lot of freedom and is able to roam the field, dropping deep to pick up the ball, as he did throughout the match, and create chances for Neymar and Suarez’s forward runs, but now has more space and often finds himself in 1v1 situations that he sometimes struggled to find when he was played in a central area as a false 9. Against Manchester City, he was able to beat Clichy far too easily on a number of occasions and begin running at the centre backs across the edge of the penalty area looking for an intricate through ball to Neymar and Suarez.

His defensive work rate was very good as well. Many times when he played centrally, he had the ability to allow the rest of the team to handle the defensive responsibilities. There were certainly times where he would apply pressure to centre backs, but he would rarely drop deep to tracking an opposing player. However, against Manchester City, he was excellent in reading the pressing triggers and closed down Clichy very well throughout the match.

Changes

There were interesting moves from both managers. Pellegrini, with his side down 2-0, brought on Fernandinho for Nasri, which moved Milner into a right midfielder role. It was a certainly a more defensive move by Pellegrini and was followed by Wilfred Bony on for Džeko, which was an almost like for like switch as both were used as big, target man when the occasion called. After the Manchester City goal, Enrique put Mathieu on for Rakitic, which moved Mascherano into midfield behind Busquets and Iniesta. This gave Barcelona a bit more of a tenacious, physical presence in centre midfield, but it the move wasn’t given much time to prove itself as Clichy was sent off soon after, giving Barcelona control of the rest of the match.

Conclusion

Messi had a chance to kill the tie at the very end of the game after he won a penalty against Zabaleta, but Hart was able to save the penalty and Messi headed his follow up effort well wide.

There was some fantastic play by Barcelona in the first half and Pellegrini would have been more than happy to have taken a 2-1 match at that point such was Barcelona’s dominance.

The second leg will certainly force Manchester City and Pellegrini to start with two forwards again as they even a 1-0 win would see them knocked out of the competition on away goals. This will leave them outnumbered in central midfield again and, perhaps more importantly in the second leg, it will leave them open to Barcelona counter attacks.