Facial expression of Joy and despair for Lionel Messi and Joe Hart after Barcelona penalty |
Reports from the Etihad on
a night when respect for the little Argentinian started before kick-off and
carried on through the 90 minutes
Lionel Messi looked up at the stands, surprise spreading across his face.
He was walking off the pitch after Barcelona's pre-match warm-up and the
Manchester City fans sitting either side of the tunnel were applauding him.
Messi acknowledged the show of respect and returned it with a thumbs-up
before he disappeared from view.
It was all about Messi last night. Before
the match and during it. It was about the respect he
commands and the fear he instills.
It was about the way he slices open defences even when he is having a quiet
night.
It was about the way he wins matches and breaks hearts and turns normally
circumspect coaches like Manuel Pellegrini into raving conspiracy theorists.
It was about a player who gives the supporters who have come to see the
best player in the world something to remember him by.
The City supporters felt that respect for Messi and so did Pellegrini.
That's why City turned from free-scoring free spirits into a team that parked
the bus for most of the first half.
That's why Pellegrini admitted afterwards that stopping Barcelona heading
back to Catalonia with a goal was City's main ambition.
It was not a bad plan. Recent history has shown that Barcelona can become
nervous when faced with a tight second leg at the Nou Camp.
Denigrating Barcelona may have become fashionable recently but they still
sit atop La Liga and Messi has returned from injury as unstoppable as ever.
To add to City's problems, Barcelona's central defender, Gerard Pique, made
it clear on the eve of the game that he felt Barcelona had a point to prove
last night.
Beaten by 10-man Chelsea in the semi-finals two years ago and crushed 7-0
on aggregate by Bayern Munich in the last four last season, their crown has
slipped.
They are perceived as vulnerable now, vulnerable enough certainly to
embolden mischief-makers like Jose Mourinho to belittle them.
"Of course, they have Messi - he is special - and they have more than
him," the Chelsea boss said. "But I think this is the worst Barcelona
of many, many years."
Given that Barcelona beat Mourinho's Real Madrid by a wide margin last
season, no one seemed quite sure what that said about the Special One's powers.
But Pique accepted that Barcelona needed to step up against a City team
whose goal is to emulate them.
"Maybe other teams don't fear us as
before because in the last two years we didn't win the Champions League," the former Manchester United defender said.
"We can still be the best, but we have to show to the world we can do
it."
They made a good fist of doing that last night. By the time the first 15
minutes had elapsed, the Etihad had fallen into an awed silence.
City simply could not get the ball. Barcelona stroked
it around the pitch as casually as if they were playing in a training match.
They made pretty shapes and created neat triangles as City chased shadows
but faced with City's massed defence, they could not find a way through.
Messi's contribution was fitful. He was starved of possession for much of
the opening 45 minutes. His only effort was a free kick straight into City's
wall.
But Messi has reached a stage in his phenomenal career where he breaks, or
appears to be about to break, goalscoring records every time he appears.
His two goals against Rayo Vallecano at the weekend took him above Alfredo
Di Stefano into third place in the list of all time top scorers in La Liga.
He has 228 goals now, behind only Hugo Sanchez who has 234 and Telmo Zarra
on 251. Messi has scored those goals in just 263 games.
On a world level he has already scored the most goals in a season, the most
international goals in a season and the most goals in a calendar year.
And in the Champions League, he went into last night's game needing only
six more goals to overhaul Raul's 71 to become the all-time record goal scorer
in the competition.
You can make that five now. Eight minutes after half time, he burst into
life and cut City to pieces.
Loitering on the shoulder of Demichelis, Messi sprinted on to a through
ball from Iniesta and Demichelis tripped him as he hurtled into the box.
Messi took the penalty himself and sent Joe Hart the wrong way. It was
tempting to think that in that moment, City had lost not just the match but the
tie.
That impression was confirmed when Dani Alves doubled Barcelona's lead a
minute from the end.
Pellegrini went into meltdown after the match and accused the Swedish
referee of costing City the match.
It wasn't the referee. It was Messi. City had kept him quite for a while
but with Messi, a while is nowhere near long enough.
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