Manchester City welcome Barcelona to the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday and they will be hoping against hope that Pep Guardiola’s tactics finally enables them to beat Barcelona or at least nick a point off them. Manchester City started off well with an emphatic victory over Borussia Monchengladbach but have since drawn 3-3 with Celtic before suffering an embarrassing 4-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona.
A good performance topped with a favourable result is the need of the hour for the Sky Blues who will be buoyed by the absence of Pique and Iniesta. But the Blaugrana still possesses enough firepower to dismantle the nervy City rearguard. All in all, we are set up for a cracking contest tomorrow and the Etihad has to be behind the home team and put aside their aversion to the European competition.
With the match expected to be a blockbuster, we take a brief look at the 3 key battles which have the potential to alter the course of the match.
SERGIO AGUERO VS SAMUEL UMTITI
The Argentine came back to form with a bang against West Brom and the Blue half of Manchester will be hoping that he is able to carry the momentum into the Champions League. The 6th player on the list of all-time top-scorer of City has already notched up two hat-tricks in the competition and a winning goal will be more than welcome tomorrow. He will be up against Samuel Umtiti who has quickly settled into life at the Nou Camp. In the absence of Pique, the young Frenchman will be tasked with keeping Messi’s international teammate quiet.
FERNANDINHO VS RAKITIC
The Brazilian has been in terrific form this season and although he saw a minor dip, he seems back to his best again. Fernandinho is a vital part of Pep’s plans and his defensive acumen along with his untiring nature allows the abundance of attacking players to prosper in the set-up.
Iniesta’s injury guarantees a place in the starting eleven for Rakitic and the Croatian will be looking to pull the strings from the deeper areas and feed the ball to MSN. Fernandinho has to be on top of his game to cut short the supply and plug the gaps between the midfield and defence.
MSN VS CITY DEFENCE
Vincent Kompany is expected to be selected alongside John Stones and the pair, along with the full-backs, will be tasked with thwarting the MSN from scoring. We have seen that the trio of Messi, Neymar and Suarez don’t need more than a single opportunity to score and City must cut down on the mistakes and every man in the backline and the defensive midfield have to be on top of their individual game.
