Luis Suarez scored twice on his return to England as Barcelona taught Manchester City another footballing lesson with a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium.
Despite being played off the pitch in a masterful first half Barça display, City have themselves at least a flicker of hope for the second leg as Sergio Aguero scored a brilliant goal. That being said, Barca should have wrapped up the game at the death, but Lionel Messi had a penalty saved by Joe Hart in injury time.
But that first half performance by Barcelona brought back memories of the Guardiola era Barca sides. Suarez actually looked rusty in the early minutes with a few touches going astray, but he soon put that right in emphatic fashion after 16 minutes. The Uruguayan international’s luck changed when he got his head to a Messi cross and the ball rebounded kindly to him off Vincent Kompany. The angle was tight but he made no mistake with a lethal low strike.
Dzeko then missed a great chance to equalizer but he headed a great chance wide of the goal. Then Suarez got his second on the half-hour after more trickery from Messi, jinking across the area and finding Neymar, and his low cross was turned in by a sliding Suarez. It might have got even worse for City before the break as Neymar chipped Hart, only for Pablo Zabaleta to clear, and Dani Alves broke away and lobbed a shot on to the bar.
City gave themselves hope when Silva fed Aguero and the Argentinian showed typically nimble footwork to skip out of a challenge from Gerard Pique and lift the ball over Ter Stegen. The crowd finally had something to cheer, but any thoughts of a famous fightback soon disappeared as Clichy received a second booking for catching Alves high.
Clichy’s red card marked the third consecutive game that City have had a man sent off against Barcelona.
Morata shines in Juve win
Juventus claimed a 2-1 advantage after the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Borussia Dortmund. Carlos Tevez and Marco Reus traded untidy goals before Alvaro Morata restored Juventus’ lead late in the first half in Turin.
With no further goals in the second half, the Italian Serie A leaders were left as favourites to progress, although Dortmund’s away goal gives them hope. Juve took the lead when Morata broke and crossed and Roman Weidenfeller fumbled the ball straight to Tevez to tap home.
But the equaliser arrived five minutes later when Giorgio Chiellini’s slip presented the ball to Reus, who calmly tucked it past Buffon from the edge of the box. Morata nodded Tevez’s inventive cutback wide and Bonucci could not get on top of Andrea Pirlo’s free-kick before the latter was forced off by injury, Roberto Pereyra taking his place.
But the hosts went ahead again three minutes before the break when Tevez held off Ilkay Gundogan and fed Paul Pogba, who crossed low for Morata to finish from six yards. Dortmund twice threatened early in the second half, substitute Oliver Kirch unable to convert Schmelzer’s free-kick while Buffon saved from Immobile.
For Juve, Chiellini was denied by Weidenfeller while Pogba was unable to finish off a determined run and Tevez flashed high and wide. Mats Hummels cleared Morata’s dangerous cross and Tevez worked space amid a crowd of defenders before getting off a low shot which was deflected wide.
Immobile fizzed an opportunist snap-shot over the bar and Henrikh Mkhitaryan fired wide but Dortmund were only able to muster long-range efforts, save for Immobile’s header wide under pressure.
Chiellini headed Claudio Marchisio’s corner over after Weidenfeller saved from Tevez before Pereyra missed the chance to give the Italians a dominant first-leg lead, skewing a shot across goal from the corner of the six-yard box.
