Revenge will be in the air when Pep Guardiola’s men welcome Barcelona in the City of Manchester Stadium in the week. Unlike, Manchester United, Guardiola had to wait longer to have another chance at making amends for the humiliating defeat at Camp Nou in their last Champions League fixture.
Barcelona, on the other hand, with their long injury list of first team players won’t be coming much ambitious. They need just a draw to qualify for the round of 16 and securing it will be their first priority.
Manchester City have managed to remain at the top of their Premier League table despite many hiccups in the past few weeks. Guardiola will look to bring their weekend’s Premier League form into the game expecting their start striker, Sergio Aguero, to fire once again.
Defence
With Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Jeremy Mathieu and Aleix Vidal all out injured, Barcelona will have a horrendous time defending the likes of Aguero, David Silva, Jesus Navas and Raheem Sterling. While Luis Enrique had to makeshift his defence in their weekend win of Granada CF, which had Sergi Roberto occupying the right-back slot with Lucas Digne coming back in on the left and Javier Mascherano partnering with Samuel Umtiti in the middle. This seemingly their best back line construct at the moment, we expect Barcelona to stick with it against City.
Midfield
Similar to their defence, Barcelona also lacks options in the middle. Andres Iniesta is out for long after suffering an injury against Valencia. With Mascherano forced to slip at the back, Barcelona does not really have a backup for the central defensive duo of Sergio Busquets and Ivan Rakitic at the moment.
With Busquets benched in the weekend, we expect him to start against City. Barcelona have central midfield options in Andre Gomez and Denis Suarez, who played against Granada. With the manager choosing the trio of Rakitic, Suarez and Rafinha in the middle, we expect Rakitic and Rafinha to play attacking midfield with Busquets in the central defensive role.
Attack
Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez had a very rare occasion of no goal among the three against Granada in the weekend. Rafinha’s goal was, however, enough for the Blaugranas to secure a win and move to the second position in the La Liga table.
But, Guardiola is more than aware of the trio’s deadly potential to score and create goals out of nowhere. Messi’s hat-trick against City in their last match exposed how fragile City’s back line is.
