Hi guys, similar to other threads, I think this game worth discussing.

Barca: known for the matured tiki-taka, having the deadliest trio, currently kinda on form, has Messi, playing at home. No major injury.

Man City: having PEP, and employing tiki-taka alike, most worthy-watching-attack in EPL. Not at their best form, but still scary as hell. Sagna seem to be the only big injury concern.

Both have their key players rested in the weekend. This game should be so much tighter than the recent years.

Prediction: Barca 2 - 1 Man City

I'll just copy paste from the comment section and see what you guys think about this.

When barcelona beat a Spanish team 4-0, English fans say Spanish
league is weak. So what do you say when barcelona beat top English
team 4-0? English league is weak? Or barcelona is just that good.
English teams playing each other feels like two dogs fighting. It's
very exciting and fun to watch but it's not fun when you send your top
dog to fight a lion like barcelona.........it's different!

in case you didn't notice, it was 1-0 when bravo was sent off, and
barca also scored once when they also had 10 players. so, if you're so
keen on perverting the reality, even then it's 2-0 and not 1-0.

What Invincible14 said. Do you really think it would have ended 4-0 hadn't it been for the red card? It was long since I saw City make so many individual mistakes. And those mistakes weren't because of Barca.

Okey. Let's try this again. Hopefully, you can understand it this time around. First goal.. 4 defenders messes up for Messi to score = Individual mistakes. A goal that shouldn't have been. After 45min City has played fairly well. As good as Barca. But fine, the goal did happen, but at this point, the game is totally open. Second half begins. Bravo fucks up something incredible= Individual mistake, and gets sent off. With one man less and a goal behind, the game will look completely different. Would you agree about this? Now, obviously, Barca would have the upper hand, on home turf, with all men on the pitch and a goal up. Messi steps up and shows his brilliance. 2-0. 3rd goal.. Another individual mistake by Gundogan. Again, none of these mistakes has happened because of Barca, although they obviously took advantage of the situations. Now, you do realize that City's motivation might be lacking at this point? No? Basically the same logic as to why teams play better and win more on their home turf. This is why the first comment is such an incredibly stupid one. First of he equals the performance of one team; Barcelona with the entire league. The broad brush approach. A faulty assumption. Secondly, he doesn't realize that the outcome and been totally different hadn't it been for the red card. And you donät seem to understand either. On the topic of perverting the reality.

I don't think turning this thread into another league vs. league debate is a good idea. Barcelona were better than City on the night. That's a fact. City also helped Barcelona win with some atrocious defending. That's also a fact. All in all, multiple factors contributed to Barcelona winning 4-0 on the night. Regardless of which, I think it was fairly clear that City, despite playing decently on the offense, were a class below Barcelona tonight.

City honestly played well. I think they would've beaten Barca. They had equal if not most of the possession. It all went downhill because of individual errors. The first being the slip that led to the first goal. If that didn't happen, the game would have been way tighter. City who were actually dominating the game, they panicked, de bruyne also panicked. The worst was bravo, who knew he was out and was just trying to save the game for city. I believe he thought that they could tie it, but it was too much and Barca dominated. The worst player was Stones, both otamendi and fernandinho were covering his mistakes. City could've won this game, but as someone said above, they were their own demise. Individual mistakes. They could win the game. Play aguero up front. de bruyne was angry and panicking bc of his slips, but he did well. They won't lose the next game

So Basically Fernandinho and Bravo screwed up a City team who where playing very well the first few minutes and should have/could have even gotten a tie today.

Something to note is how Pep was trying to play with a false 9, something very popularly used by him while at Barcelona which he rarely ever uses any more. If there is a guy capable of putting up a counter team to play Barcelona it has to be this man.

I didn't watch the game live, but I watched it on rewind. This kind of mars my opinion a bit because I already knew the outcome, but I have a few notes:

-City did, in general, play very well. The Barca goals for the most part came from luck (e.g. Fernandinho slipping), and moments of idiocy (e.g. Bravo and Otamendi).

That's the only note I have, and it doesn't matter.

The had a lot of possession and carved out no real chances. They had good movement but couldn't connect on a defense breaking pass. They had several mind-numbing errors that would have resulted in a loss against *** Burnley, let alone Barcelona.

There were signs though. For 95% of the game, Messi didn't do anything. For the other 5%, he scored 3 goals. That kinda sums up City for me. They're so good, and they should win so much, but someone slips up, or someone goes full retard, and NO ONE steps up with the type of quality you would expect from them.

This has been, in general, City for the last half decade. Pep or no Pep, that hasn't changed.

@SunFlash: 95% of the game Messi didn't do anything?????? Seriously mate????????? That's entirely untrue. Everytime he was on the ball, the caused some thread, and a lot of Barca attack came through him, he dropped deep lots of time. You really gotta watch the game.

Messi and the other was just a part of the team that faced an awesome team (Manchester City), their capabilities were also limited by the opponent, same go for MC side.

Man City was pressing incredibly high and kept running the whole game, but for the circumstances, and in general after 70 mins it's hard to keep playing like that, that's more for death matches or knockout rounds. Barca had great individuals and Man City individuals gave them gifts, they took it with BOTH HANDS. when you give MSN a space, you are dead, their pressures cause the opponents to make mistakes. Look at Boateng, do you think at that time he was a weak link?

Agree with @Tuanis if there is one EPL to put up a counter and play on par with Barca, it has to be Pep and his team.

@Tuan

I did watch the game, just after the fact. Messi had a lot of great link-up play, but no more so than anyone else in the Barca squad, who, in general, didn't create their own opportunities until very late in the game. I used to value link-up play, but LVG pretty much ruined it for me because I realized without proper intent and runs, link-up play in and of itself does not lead to offensive productivity in the form of chances. For a lot of the game, Barca simply did not create chances, although they did take advantage of City's mistakes.

Look at Boateng, do you think at that time he was a weak link?

No, I think he made a single error in a game where he largely shut down Barca's attacking threat for 80 minutes. Tis the life of a defender, make one mistake and get crucified, while attackers make endless mistakes, yet praised when only one thing comes off.

Agree with @Tuanis if there is one EPL to put up a counter and play on par with Barca, it has to be Pep and his team.

Pep and his team just lost 4-0. If this were any other team, from any other league, would we be attempting to explain this away? I highly doubt it.

Uhmn,

He made that error, and similar to all other great defenders, in a lot of cases were due to high pressure and being under intense attacks throughout the game. We dont talk about the noobs that randomly committed errors (unfortunately yesterday we witness a few). Boateng was solid, but after being put under lots of pressure he finally broke it, He shut down Barca's attack for 80 mins, but at the same time he was attacked by Barca's forces. we gotta give credit to the offender.

Back to your point, I find that you are downgrading Messi's performance too much. He wasn't at his best (credit to Man City), but he involved in almost all key moments of Barca. that's feeling and stats.

I dont get your point of linked up play, it sounds like common sense, there are a lot of things involve to have offensive productivity, especially in the final product (good chances or goals).

Barca or MU or MC or any team doesn't have to always create chances to score, taking advantages of other's mistakes is a part of this beautiful games. Lots of team fails to do that, and it is as bad as creating chances and dont finish them. In elite matches, you can't be wasteful or make silly mistakes.

If that point is to point out Barca wons lots of time because of other's mistakes. Yes, in this game, I highly believe so. In other games, they just dominated opponents,we lost to them in 2 finals in this way.

Pep and his team lost 4-0. True. But before the silly red, Man City was truely great, they dominated and outclassed Barca in a lot of moments, now that individual error of Bravo changed the outcome massively. I seriously dont think the score justified the game as much. Man City came to Camp Nou, have a fair share of possession and created more chances (1st half & before the red) than Barca in a high expectation game, not much team can do that.

Pep made stupid tactical errors (which I dont get either), but I dont deny the fact that Man City looked more threatening and worth watching than ever.

Messi didnt do much really in the game those 3 goals only the 2nd i would say he "Made" by his skill.
For me neymar was the one causing major issues to city. I predicted the game to end 5-0 it's Barca after all.

They put great 15min of play sterling is a flop in his game

That's the English league for you. Flop

I didn't watch the game because of the Napoli Beşiktaş game. It was one of the best nights of my life btw :)
Anyways, from what i've heard later and the post game Interview of Guardiola, City was not too bad. And this is Barcelona. When you concede 4 goals against them it's never a surprise or a bad result like people thinks. And we all know Guardiola's tactical management. He never ever uses a bus. Unlike some other managers! (For to make it clear defensive game and bus are 2 completely different tactics.) So the game in Manchester will make it clear and easy to analyse.

Messi didnt do much really in the game those 3 goals only the 2nd i would say he "Made" by his skill.
For me neymar was the one causing major issues to city. I predicted the game to end 5-0 it's Barca after all.

They put great 15min of play sterling is a flop in his game

That's the English league for you. Flop

That's a lousy prediction. And a lousy comment.

Pep and his team just lost 4-0. If this were any other team, from any other league, would we be attempting to explain this away? I highly doubt it.

This too. Yawn.

I don't want to blame individual mistakes because I think it is the spirit of the whole squad at fault . City always gets smashed by pressure of big European game . They are capable of much more but players somehow don't have that European football mentality . City has the strongest squad they had in years and still fall short tells me that individual players can't cope with expectations . I think it is all morale when it comes to playing big Eurpean clubs .

Like we all noticed they played very well at times even better than Barcelona . Therefore , I think Guardiola needs to change that mentality and turn them into team that can cope with any European night pressure otherwise they will always be underachievers.

Agree with @Marcus here. That being said, I think the outcome at the Etihad will be quite different. Guardiola needs to bring a sense of fearlessness to his City squad...

Barca were average, completely trash defensively. Mascerano as a right back ? Enrique probably changed his drugs dealer lately, 2 defensive injuries during the game : clean sheet wtf ?
Messi has problem with his pace, cant even run properly : hat trick

Those who praise Barcelona during this game are just being kind to Man City.
I don't know what to think, the scoreline is great, the goals too. But we just faced a team not even able to score a chance while having highways. And it's not even Peps fault, his tactic is the best to harass Barça but his players just fu*ked it, as usual. I didn't celebrate the first goal, I was more surprised than happy, Messi stopped running looked arround him And went to the ball while no one moved a foot. What a joke game, Neymar looked like dribbling his sons in the garden.

5 loss in a row vs Barca, they should stop overpaying players and try to inject some passion there. Lucky to face an off form Barca, could have been worse.

Passion is hard to inject into a team. A team shows passion when there is a cause - a purpose. When players join a team like Real Madrid or Barcelona or Bayern, they join because they hope to be part of the rich history the club already possesses. I'm sure that when James joined Real in 2014, he did it because he wanted to be another legend at the club. And in order to become that type of player, you must play hard and to the top of your level every single minute of every single game. There are no "lazy" players at the clubs (except maybe Danilo at Real...). All the players at the clubs are there because they want to participate in the rich history of the club.

When it comes to clubs like City, who don't have any history, you need a certain type of personality managing it in order to bring out the same passion that Madrid or Barca players play with. Someone like Diego Simeone, who oozes passion. You need a manager who is both impeccably eloquent and can stir up both the players and the crowd. I personally believe that Simeone, Klopp, and Mourinho are the best in the business at this type of management. Pep does not manage in this fashion. Pep is a cool-headed, tactical manager like Ancelotti. However, Ancelotti also takes time to get to know the players, and since the players love him they play with passion as well. Pep has Ancelotti's cool but doesn't instigate that form of passion within the players. Neither is he a coach who jumps up and down every time his team scores. He's a different kind of genius. Everyone needs to be on his wavelength for his tactics to succeed properly.

I don't think blaming Pep or blaming the players is necessarily just, but both parties certainly need to make an effort to understand the other better. An improvement in manager-player relationships and understanding will go a long way in terms of tactical execution and passion, IMO. Players perform at their peak when they truly believe they are part of a greater cause and every step, every action helps their team achieve that cause. Pep needs his players to believe that this City squad has a cause, and mediocrity and laziness will not be tolerated.

Lucky to face an off form Barca, could have been worse.

No, it couldn't. Everything undeservedly went barcas way anyways. And you claim Barca is in off-form. What is not City then?? City to beat barca at home next!

^ That's a lousy comment, and a lousy prediction.

You're boring.

Barca was weak Wednesday, face it.
Anyway if I said Barca was great you would reply negatively tho, your hate toward me just turned you into a simple hater.
You claim nobody likes me here, maybe you represent whole FR, but do you realize the image you are giving to others with your useless interventions ? You became pathetic.

I also thought there were mistakes from Pep . Why he didn't start Aguero ? Then Bringing him on was too late . He should have been on right after first half . I thought it was clear pure striker was missing . Also playing De Bruyne up front ? What is up these new tactics as playing without striker .. That sht rarely works anymore in big matches .. Football managers learn quickly how to play against such formations .
He should have had De Bruyne play on the wing up against Mascherano . Pace and direct De Bruyne would have created so much trouble on that wing . Ok Not that I know more than Pepe , but this mistakes seem obvious and sometimes very smart man makes stupid mistakes because they are just too obvious .