City hopes hang by a thread

Manchester City 0 Barcelona 2

The key moment came shortly after half-time when Martin Demichelis was caught on the wrong side of Lionel Messi and chopped down his fellow Argentine just outside the area.

Referee Jonas Eriksson had little choice but to send the defender off but wrongly awarded a penalty that was converted by Messi to put Barcelona, who had been on top without ever really threatening to hurt the hosts, in charge.

What may well be the killer goal came in the final minute when Dani Alves swapped passes with Neymar and capitalised on Joleon Lescott’s slip to scamper through and drill a low shot through Joe Hart’s legs into the corner.

If progression had looked unlikely for City before that, it will now require a shock of the proportions of 10-man Chelsea’s 2-2 draw in the semi-finals in the Nou Camp two years ago for Manuel Pellegrini’s team to get through. The churlish may suggest that for the big money spent by City last summer, their failure to recruit another top-quality centre-back to play alongside Vincent Kompany — Real Madrid’s Pepe was Pellegrini’s main target — had come back to haunt them when it mattered most.

No matter what Kompany said afterwards, Barcelona were superior but that would not necessarily have resulted in them returning to Catalonia with such an advantage.

We will never know what would have happened if Demichelis had stayed on the pitch but, with them needing two goals in the Nou Camp on March 12 just to force extra-time, City’s first venture into the Champions League knock-out phase is all but over.

Those who had come expecting City to beat Barcelona at their own game were to be disappointed, but Pellegrini appears to have learned from his lack of pragmatism earlier in the season and he slotted Aleksandar Kolarov in at right midfield, with David Silva playing off Alvaro Negredo.

Silva dropped into midfield, where City were clearly determined not to be outnumbered.

For all Pellegrini’s talk of City playing in the same way they always do here in the league, it was Barcelona’s centre-halves, rather than the hosts’, that spent long periods of the first half standing on halfway watching the match take place at the other end of the field.

City appeared content to allow Gerardo Martino’s team possession until they were almost inside the area but even so the home side never really looked stretched, other than the tendency to clear the ball anywhere, rather than somewhere near Negredo.

When Pellegrini’s side were able to venture forward they caused far greater problems than the visitors.

Silva slid a pass through for Negredo and the striker’s shot from a narrow angle dribbled past the far post before Victor Valdes was made to look far from comfortable in dealing with a Silva free-kick that was won in their air by Kompany before City were penalised during the scramble that followed.

Fernandinho robbed Xavi 10 yards outside the Barcelona area and Negredo had a low effort held by Valdes.

It took Barca half an hour to work Messi into a threatening position and the forward drove over from the edge of the area after swapping passes with Andres Iniesta.

Hart looked anxious when gathering Xavi’s swerving shot at the second attempt and Negredo missed with two headers just before the interval.

But all of that was undone in the briefest of exchanges five minutes after the break. Jesus Navas gave the ball away on halfway and Iniesta played a marvellous pass through for Messi, who was chopped down by Demichelis

Eriksson applied his double punishment before Messi stroked in from the penalty spot and Pellegrini responded by narrowing his team further by bringing on Lescott and Samir Nasri.

Barcelona seemed reluctant to go for the throat, although Xavi drove over from Alves’ cross and then the Barcelona right-back prodded past the post after being played through by Alexis Sanchez.

City threatened when Pablo Zabaleta nipped a ball in for Silva and the Spaniard controlled on his chest before forcing a fine save from Valdes, and substitute Edin Dzeko was causing no shortage of problems as the home side remained defiant.

But just when it looked as though they would escape with just a one-goal deficit, Alves swapped passes with Neymar before prodding the ball under Hart to give Barcelona a huge advantage.