Manchester City’s Champions League group game will be played at home against a strongly lined up Barcelona, with manager Pep Guardiola suggesting that in order to beat their opponents the game will have to be treated like a final. Manchester City lost the away leg by a score-line of 4-0 at the Camp Nou and are at the moment second spot in Group C, just a single point in front of of Borussia Monchengladbach.
Argentine international Sergio Aguero is also expected to start for the Citizen’s, and right-back Pablo Zabaleta could also be available to start the game.
The ex Bayern Munich manager said in his recent interview that the couple of points that they dropped against Celtic were quite costly for them and that it was the reason that the game was a final for them.
Aguero had started the game at the Nou Camp on the bench but, following an impressive two goals win over West Brom in the Premier League on Saturday, he is expected to start.
The Spaniard further talked about the upcoming game and added, “We have to be focused for 90 minutes, knowing they are going to provoke mistakes because of the quality they have.”
“But we had a few chances and have to keep going in that sense and try to finish better than we did in Barcelona.
“We will try. I have never entered a match thinking we can not win but we have to play almost perfectly.”
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City have lost all five of their previous games against Barcelona and have seen a player being sent off in four of those games, with keeper Claudio Bravo shown a red card the last time out.
Also, due to this the Chile international will be replaced by Willy Caballero for the game on Tuesday night.
The City boss further said, “It is always difficult against Barcelona 11 v 11. When it’s 10 v 11, it is almost impossible.”
“But at that level it is impossible to achieve your targets. It is football. Football is a game of mistakes.”
Barca will be without Andres Iniesta and defenders Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Aleix Vidal and Jeremy Mathieu, who was sent off in the first outing.
Arda Turan has also recovered in time from injury and is fit to play. Brazilian Under-21 international Marlon caught a later flight to Manchester after forgetting his passport back at home.
Barca boss Luis Enrique on the other hand stated that the two teams are similar and it would be a battle between identical philosophies.
The game could be something similar to the first one and that the team would once again have to put in a similar effort. He suggested, “I am sure that Guardiola knows the key to making things difficult for us.”
“In three months he has managed to make his team identifiable which is certain to grow. Every month that passes, the immediate future of Manchester City is promising.”
Predicted score-line: Manchester City 1-3 Barcelona
