Manchester City
set-up, however grand their aims, the stomach is bound to churn at the
sight of a £450 million attacking prong in shirts as luminous as their
talents. All teams enter the Casino de Barcelona when
Lionel Messi and company come to town.
However fancy the
City’s second-half fightback could not conceal Barcelona’s
first-half superiority, Messi’s majesty or the likelihood that Manuel
Pellegrini’s men will advance no further than this round of 16.
Pellegrini was adamant that 4-4-2 was the right weapon against
football’s most illustrious trio. His results against them – three
consecutive defeats – suggest otherwise.
Luis Suárez
is the third biggest name in the Barcelona forward triumvirate but he
was the first on to the scoresheet with an obligatory goal against Joe
Hart. Where have we seen that before? In São Paulo, where he returned
from a month out with a knee injury to
end England's World Cup.
To extend that symmetry, Suárez put a second one beyond the England
goalkeeper on 29 minutes after Messi had flashed across the City penalty
area and guided the ball to Jordi Alba to cross.
City 0 Suárez 2, with less than half an hour gone. And this after three
successive errors from the Premier League’s best player in 2013-14 had
raised doubts about his form. Even Suárez looked exasperated. But help
was at hand, from Vincent Kompany, who made a mess of a Messi chip into
the box, which then fell to Suárez to slam past Hart.
With Sergio Agüero fit in City colours, and David Silva present, this
was surely the most star-studded game to be played on this turf. But
there was no mistaking the imbalance in Barcelona’s favour. Their front
line is almost gaudy – or Gaudí – and would have no place for Edin
Dzeko, who started alongside Agüero in a high-risk City XI.
The key to the game, every pundit said, was whether
City's deployment two strikers would concede midfield superiority
to Luis Enrique’s team. With Messi dropping deep to shape the attacks,
we soon had our answer, as Fernando and James Milner laboured to stop
Barcelona’s greased moves through the middle. On City’s right, Alba was a
constant menace.
The Barcelona trident have been responsible
for 70 goals this season: 37 of them from Messi, who missed a penalty in
added time (his fifth miss in 10 games for club and country). Whatever
the truth about friction between him and the manager (the little
megastar was rested against Real Sociedad, against his wishes), or a
casino trip the night before the flight to Manchester, Messi asserted his ball-carrying brilliance without difficulty here.
As Liverpool found when Ronaldo visited Anfield, the greatest players
can make fine players look feeble, good teams turn grey. You could see
Messi fancying the way City were set up. It offered him avenues to run
down, runs to pick out, bursts of magic to inflict. And none of us can
know how it feels to play in a forward line where there are two other
world-class players to complete the job if necessary.
There they
were: numbers nine, 10 and 11, all in fluorescent shirts. The
high-rollers. At a conservative estimate it would cost £450 million to
buy all three: Messi, Neymar and Suárez, who should have known he would
be third, at best, on the Barcelona VIP list. Fourth if you count Andrés
Iniesta. Or Xavi, or Gerard Piqué. The best card he holds, though, is
that he is a natural centre-forward, unlike Messi or Neymar, and can go
bump for bump with the likes of Kompany and Martin Demichelis.
Below boardroom level, where they raided the Nou Camp brains trust, the
closest City can get to this level of destructive creativity is Silva
and Agüero. But to see Milner and Fernando as the two central
midfielders in a game of this difficulty is the best indication of the
continuing gap between the sides.
With such a deficit, it takes
great tactical management or inspirational leadership to nullify
superior individual talent. In nine seasons in Spain, Pellegrini managed
only four wins against Barcelona. His overall record was played 22, won
four, drawn four, lost 14.
Malaga’s shock win over Barca at the
weekend (and those casino pics) may have encouraged Pellegrini to
believe his guests would be vulnerable. Both events were more likely to
heighten their concentration. Before the Malaga upset Barcelona had won
their 11 previous fixtures.
City started the second-half with
more intent, more counter-attacking thrust. Barcelona responded as they
always do, with clock-burning possession, and spurts of activity. City
went back to being a tough Premier League team, no longer bamboozled by
Catalan artistry. On 67 minutes they unleashed Wilfried Bony, bought for
£25 million because Dzeko and Stefan Jovetic had not supported Agüero
well enough.
Contrast that emergency spending with the evolution
of Barcelona’s forward line. Best player in Argentina, best in Brazil,
best in Uruguay. Three ultra-safe bets. At least Agüero is in that
class. His brilliant top-corner drive on 69 minutes brought the game
back to life.
An impressive counter-surge at 2-0 down displays
tenacity in chasing a lost cause. But City, who lost Gaël Clichy to a
second yellow card on 73 minutes, want to be at the exalted level where
games are dominated, not chased. They are not there yet. Few are,
against Suárez, Neymar and Messi.
World champions India won another one-sided. Ireland on Tuesday as they lost two wickets for 60 runs in 79 balls in hand reached. The World Cup team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won five consecutive matches.
