[wptab name=’Match Report’]
Potentially the most exciting match of the eighth finals of the Champions League turned into boring one, where the goal of Dani Alves in the 90th minute puts Barca in control. FC Barcelona already in the first game have “disarmed” Manchester City and very easy walked through a “minefield” called the Etihad Stadium. With 2-0 winning, the Catalan club practically verified ticket for the next round of the Champions league competition.
The moment that turned the game from boring to more exciting occurred in the 53rd minute, when City’s defender Martin Demichelis as the last man in defense stopped Leo Messi , for which he received a red card and Barca a penalty kick, which Messi himself converted into a 1-0 lead.
A lot of tails will be drag over this goal, because after watching the replays of this situation, it was clear that foul occurred out of the edge box. Undoubtedly Demichelis was ” the last man ” and he deserved a red card that was given , but Barcelona in the Swedish referee Jonas Eriksson perhaps received a push which decided the game !
Match up to that point lacked of real excitement , opportunities, goals , and was a big disappointment , because everyone was expecting the spectacle of one of the two most attractive pair of eighth finals LP (the other one is Arsenal – Bayern ) , and instead of ” beauty” from the first part of the knock-out stages , we got ” camomile ” .
Pellegrini’s team immediately after the goal was “short” for one player , so he made a few changes hoping to prevent the catastrophe – Lescott and Nasri entered instead Kolarov and Navas, which soon created a great opportunity for the City .
It looks like, The hosts were supposed to have a player less , to finally seriously threaten Barca – Nasri on the edge of the box had the time and space to score , but his attempt ends in a block .
The match in the last 20-minutes logically started to be a much more exciting, because Man City no longer had anything to lose. Pellegrini threw in Edin Dzeko for the last 15 minutes, and a few minutes later a great opportunity for the Citizens and a great save of Valdes: Silva calmed the ball with his chest and fired from just outside the penalty area, but Valdes throws himself to the right side and saves a goal.
In the final minute of the match, Alves and Neymar make a double-pas after which Daniel Alves from close range has sent the ball trough Hart’s legs for the final 2-0.
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[wptab name=’Match Centre’]
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[wptab name=’Highlights’]
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[wptab name=’Full Match’]
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