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

^ Agree with @Marcus here. I think not starting Aguero was a huge mistake. Especially when Pique, Mascherano, and Mathieu always struggle with pace. Combine that with Aguero's trickery, positioning, and directness and Barcelona would have been sh.itting themselves every time KDB tossed a pass to Kun. The game could've ended very different if City and Pep made some slight changes.

The moment he said KDB is Messi type of players ( wich is partially right if KDB gains confidence and consistency ), maybe he will build arround him and give him more responsibility. He played Messi as a false nine the year he got rid of Ibra and David Villa's role was a little different then. Maybe Aguero had an injury imo I can't see Pep experiencing things against the hardest game of the month, City should have been sharper and should have scored first. But then it's not easy to defend against MSN and it usually escalates quickly when they score first. Anyway first place is secured now but Atletico topping their group is not a good news for Barca because Bayern could be potential rivals in 1/8 finals, Atletico finishing 2 nd would have prevented Barca from both Bayern-Atletico. But it's not over yet in other groups.

@dynast Mathieu is pretty fast than he looks, but error prone sadly.

@tiki

Exactly , why experiment with KDB as false 9 against Barcelona . Stick to the formation and lineup that was doing so well in EPL ..

Another thing would be correct : If City would have won got a draw out Barcelona , Pep would have been praised for his tactics , but I still believe it was too risky and he paid the heavy price .

What you guys think about yesterday game? Man City 3 - 1 Barcelona

Man City was exceptional, great football, intense, high pressure and precise, they played as a team. I always say, Man City never looked like they had crisis, they played great football (sad to say since MU's in bad time). Pep is laying his mark in the team. They played like before they had their red in the first round, fair and square with Barca.

Barcelona showed what they could do, their identity in the first 40 mins, then sucked badly, no motivation, not compact, careless and clueless. Like someone would underestimate their opponents and pay the heavy price. It's ok, because 3 points is not that important to them compare to City, but their mid and defense raised a lot of issues. Bustquet was dreadful and dunno why wasn't subbed, he has been so poor the last few weeks. The defense look so shaky, Ter Stegen passed so slow, too slow that the opponents already marked all of the defenders.

Congratz to City, Im jealous.

Until Gundogan's first goal it was all Barcelona, then they started collapsing. In 2nd half it was all about City, the game between 50-70 minute was so intense, could have been easily 6:1, but even 2:2, but Gomes was just so bad. As bad as whole Barcelona defence. Congrats City.

City outperformed Barcelona. They had high pressure since minute 1. Pep knew how to stop them. Keeping the pressure high to not leave room for them to build up their game, is the only way to actually stop them. KDB was amazing in this game too. A superb game from City.

This is how I expected City to play in the first game. Good on them for understanding Pep's tactics. If there's one man who knows how to beat Barcelona it has to be Guardiola.

Every team should take note of the way City played. If you want to beat Barca, you have to put the work rate in. This means high pressing football, man to man marking, and stopping the play from midfield. The key was stopping Busquets from playing forward. I've never seen Busquets mad, but yesterday he was and he was frustrated, even fouling. Also Barca defense has been lacklustre for 2 years now. Maybe they were missing some starters yesterday, but their defense isn't as good as atletis or reals.

Busquets worst game by far, was sleeping in the first goal who changed the game dynamic, Barca had chances to score the 0-2 and instead they offered a cheap goal. Second half Midlefield was inexistant Busquets gave City FKs for free one of them costed the 2nd.
City finally ended the successive losses, 5-1 now out of 6 games. Maybe they will gain confidence after this.

Barca chances. Cheap goal. Costed the 2nd. 5-1 now.

Nopp. That's not how this game unfolded. Barca was beaten fair and square, and the game could just as well has ended 5-1 had City just netted all their chances instead.

Barca conceded a cheap goal at 0-1 and the game dynamic has changed, what part of this sentence you don't agree with it ?

@KTBFFHSWE: what tiki said doesn't take away anything from City, it's what happened. Just the same as the previous round, a cheap red card changed the game.

This time, Barca gave a way a goal, wasn't strong enough to cope with it, while City took with both hand, unfolded their potential, stayed focus dominated a Barca who lost all of their focuses and their key players continued to screw up bad.

Guariola lost to Barcelona more often then he won / so .. no.. he is not that one man to beat Barcelona ...

My take on the game is that KDB , WTF were we thinking ! I know it is complicated but honestly we should have sucked it up and let his antics slide .

^ the move to Wolfsburg was crucial, he could progress there and prove himself, but not getting a buy back clause was a huge mistake for Chelsea.

Couldn't agree more ! Was very a dumb move not to put a clause on him . I followed Kdb since we first inquired about him and always thought this guy will be perfect replacement for Lampard .

He never really got the chance by Mou, and thus wanted to leave himself. Then apparently asshole Courtois stole his then girlfriend. So internal difficulties might have something to do with it, who knows. In the end huge mistake not to include a buy-back clause, because he's SUCH A GREAT PLAYER. But I wonder how common it is to include a buy-back clause when players are sold for big numbers. I assume they are then deemed as being already developed, and thus just not a fit for the team. In comparison with T. Hazard for example where a buy-back clause was included because he needed time in another club to develop, while it was unsure whether his development would be enough for Chelsea. And now it seems that perhaps it has been, as Chelsea are lurking in the corner to but him back.

Man starting to realize that Courtois is quiet on the outside . I think he is a real dick in real life .

This photo makes me happy, it kinda feels like everything he has struggled and suffered for the past 2 years came out. (That 1-1.5 year back injury to be precise)

Then apparently asshole Courtois stole his then girlfriend.

Then again, you can understand how Courtois ended up doing it, he was teached by the best:

And history repeat itself. ;P