Manchester City will have to be perfect to have a chance of beating Barcelona, admits Pep Guardiola
Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola accepts that his side will need to produce a flawless performance to have any chance of overpowering five-time conquerors of Europe Barcelona in Tuesday's Champions League showdown.
Premier League leaders City suffered a 4-0 hammering at the hands of Guardiola’s former charges at Camp Nou during the last round of fixtures earlier this month, and are in need of a positive continental result.
The north-west outfit held their own in Catalonia until goalkeeper Claudio Bravo surrendered any hope of a City revival with a calamitous red card less than 10 minutes into the second period. Barcelona never looked back.
That result left City second in Group C, five points adrift of Luis Enrique’s side, but only one clear of third-placed Borussia Monchengladbach with a trip to Germany still to navigate.
“I have never entered a match thinking we can’t win but we know we might have to be perfect,” said Guardiola. “I think we know what we have to do to beat them and hopefully our quality up front will make a difference.
“We have to play in that way, like a final. It’s not a final for them, it is a final for us. There are just three games left and we dropped two points in Glasgow [against Celtic], so we have to recover those points in the next two games.
“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.”
Back-up stopper Willy Caballero is set to start in goal with Bravo suspended, while full-back Pablo Zabaleta has handed City a boost by returning to training after three games out with a foot injury.
Prolific marksman Sergio Aguero is in contention to spearhead City’s attack after being named amongst the substitutes in Barcelona a fortnight ago. Aguero returned to goalscoring form by netting twice against West Brom on Saturday.
For all their billing as favourites, Barcelona, who are currently second in La Liga behind Real Madrid, also have problems to contend with and will line up at the Etihad Stadium without a trio of big-hitters.
Skipper Andres Iniesta is sidelined with a knee problem, while City are set to face a makeshift back four as the game comes too soon for centre-half Gerard Pique and left-sided defender Jordi Alba, who were both injured when the two sides met in Spain.
City’s former Barcelona forward Nolito, however, is refusing to get overly excited by Barcelona’s esteemed list of absentees.
“If we want to qualify, we need a win,” said Nolito. “One day we will have to beat Barca. We are going to try and take some points off them. Even if they have players missing, it is still Barcelona that we are playing.”