A historic victory for Man City

The favourites for winning the Champions League – Barcelona really struggled at the Etihad Stadium last night, as The Citizens beat The Catalans 3-1. The Spaniards took the lead after Lionel Messi’s goal in the 21st minute, but they were later shocked by the English team, which was inspired by Josep Guardiola to turn things around and record a victory!

In the other game of Group C, the teams of Borussia Monchengladbach and Celtic finished with a 1-1 draw, which means Barcelona remain at the first position in the standings with 9 points, while the Citizens are second with 7 points. The German team has collected 4 points, and Celtic are at the 4th place with only 2 points.

To continue with, Barcelona didn’t show their usual performance and conceded lots of individual errors. With the defeat, The Catalans are still not sure about their further participation in the Champions League, and they will have to wait until their next 2 matches in the group.

Josep Guardiola brought Sergio Aguero back to the Man City’s starting line-up, as the Argentine didn’t take part in the previous match between these two teams. Luis Enrique relied on the not-so-experienced defenders Sergi Roberto, Lucas Digne and Samuel Untiti.

The ex-Barcelona head coach – Guardiola put his former team under pressure since the very beginning of the game and that worked well for his new team, because The Catalans couldn’t possess the ball as usual. In addition, Man City looked very sharp in attack. In the 11th minute, they could have received a penalty kick, but Sterling received a yellow card for diving.

However, Barcelona proved they are one of the best teams in the world, as they managed to score after a great counterattack in the 21st minute, when Lionel Messi tucked the ball away and opened the score: 0-1.

Then, the visiting team could have scored again, but Caballero saved a Neymar’s shot in the 28th minute. Until the 35th minute Suarez also missed a couple of chances. Manchester City kept playing more attacking and they were happy to equalize in the 39th minute after a fatal error in Barcelona’s defence. Gundogan was the scorer for The Citizens.

Just 6 minutes after the break Kevin de Bruyne took a free-kick brilliantly and turned things around for Manchester City. That was the crucial moment of the match. Enrique tried to change something in Barcelona’s performance and brought Arda Turan on. However, that wasn’t a successful move, because The Citizens scored their third goal of the game in the 74th minute. Ilkay Gundogan was at the right place to send the ball into the net: 3-1!

That was the first victory for Manchester City against Barcelona in a competitive match. The Catalans have won all the previous 5 Champions League matches between these two teams. So, that was a historical win for The Citizens!

The next game for Josep Guardiola’s players in The Champions League is against Borussia Monchengladbach in Germany on 23rd November, while Barcelona are flying to Scotland, where they will face Celtic. Can we see any sensational final scores? We can’t wait to watch the games!