History repeats itself: In last year’s encounter between City and Barcelona, the Catalans won 2-1 in the second leg at Camp Nou — the same scoreline by which they defeated City at the Etihad on Tuesday. PHOTO: AFP
A first-half brace from Luis Suarez helped Barcelona to a 2-1 win in Tuesday's first leg at the Etihad Stadium, but Sergio Aguero's 69th-minute goal and a stoppage-time penalty blunder by Lionel Messi gave City hope.
City lost Gael Clichy to a red card — echoing the dismissals of Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta during last season's 4-1 aggregate loss to Barcelona at the same stage of the competition — but Pellegrini expressed belief that they would turn the tie around at Camp Nou next month.
"I think we can do it," said Pellegrini. "We demonstrated in the second half that we are not a worse team than Barcelona."
However, Pellegrini was not happy with the way that the penalty was awarded to Barcelona.
“It was a very unnecessary penalty. We must control our emotion inside the box and try not to give away such meager chances in such big games.”
Messi won Barcelona's late penalty after he was felled by Argentina teammate Zabaleta, but his spot-kick was parried by City goalkeeper Joe Hart and he headed the rebound wide of the left-hand post, however Barca coach Luis Enrique is unfazed by his superstar missing a penalty.
“We know penalties can be missed in this game of ours and the next player to take one will be Lionel Messi,” said Enrique. “For now we should just celebrate as it was a big win.”
Juve face intense return in Dortmund: Morata
Juventus will have to be at their best if they are to overcome Borussia Dortmund in the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie to qualify for the quarter-finals, said Alvaro Morata.
Spanish striker Morata hit his maiden Champions League goal for the Italian champions to seal a 2-1 first leg win in a thrilling encounter in Turin, where Dortmund winger Marco Reus took advantage of a defensive howler to level five minutes after Carlos Tevez's 13th minute opener.
Juventus, who lost Andrea Pirlo to a suspected hamstring injury, were much improved in the second half as Dortmund's first-half efforts at keeping a rein on Juve's creative midfielders began to tell.
Yet Massimiliano Allegri's side went on to spurn several chances to extend their advantage after the restart, leaving Dortmund — beaten finalists two years ago — with a solid chance of progressing to the last eight.
"It will be an intense atmosphere [at the BVB Stadion]. We will have to be at our best but we'll be going there with qualification on our minds.
"It's the best game I've played since I've been at Juventus. But it was a difficult game, Dortmund are a strong side despite the fact they're having some difficulties in the league."
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