If there's one Champions league game that should guarantee goals this week, it's Manchester City vs. Barcelona. Anything else would be a letdown from this round-of-16 meeting between two lethal attacking teams. City, with 117 goals in 40 games, hosts a Barcelona that has netted just six fewer this season.
For City, Tuesday's game is a landmark occasion, a first game in the knockout phase of European football's elite competition, playing the four-time winners. But the message from Manchester seems clear: Barcelona, champions in 2009 and 2011, is a team in decline. "Maybe they don't play as well as three or four years ago, but that is normal," City winger Jesus Navas said.
QUESTION OF STYlE
So Navas thinks the Catalan giants have been found outIJ Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino still hopes the team's ability to retain possession with short, precise passes can unlock City. "Whoever has the ball for longer will have a better chance to win," Martino said.
The players have been encouraged by Martino to vary their attacking strategies with long passes and long-range shots this season, while Barcelona's defense continues to be brittle at the back against set pieces.
MESSI AND NEYMAR
When Barcelona signed Neymar from Santos last year, it brought one of the world's most promising young strikers together with lionel Messi to form one of the potentially most dangerous attacking duos in Europe.
The problem is they haven't both been fit to play together often for the Spanish leaders. They were on the pitch at the same time for just 12 minutes on Saturday in a 6-0 rout of Rayo Vallecano.
Messi came off after scoring twice as he netted in three consecutive games for the first time since September.
SPANISH CONNECTIONS
Despite City as a club having no competitive experience of Barcelona, the manager and many of the players have. There are four Spaniards in the squad for Tuesday's game: Javi Garcia, Alvaro Negredo, Navas and David Silva. And Yaya Toure, the force in City's midfield, was signed from Barca.
NEW TERRITORY
City was mediocre in the previous two seasons in the Champions league, slumping out before the knockout rounds under Roberto Mancini. It's taken the arrival of Manuel Pellegrini to establish City as a European force this season, winning five and losing just once — to holder Bayern Munich — in the group stage.
1st cOMPETITIVE MATCH
A sign of City's lack of top-level European heritage is the fthey have never played Barcelona in a competitive match.