Manchester City suffered a setback to their UEFA Champions League hopes after suffering a home defeat to Barcelona on Tuesday night.
Manchester City 0-2 Barcelona
Manchester City have it all to do to keep their UEFA Champions League dream alive after suffering a 2-0 defeat at home to Barcelona in the first leg of their round of 16 tie.
"The team played with courage, with personality, and tried to draw the match with 10 men"
Manuel Pellegrini
After a goalless first half Manuel Pellegrini's side had to play for most of the second period with 10 men following the dismissal of Martin Demichelis for a foul on Lionel Messi in the 53rd minute.
The Argentina international picked himself up to beat Joe Hart from the penalty spot and despite a valiant display by City, who came close to producing an equaliser through David Silva, Gael Clichy and Samir Nasri, the visitors dealt a savage blow by scoring a second in the last minute through Dani Alves.
The result was harsh on the Citizens, who have a mountain to climb in the return leg at Camp Nou in three weeks' time, but Pellegrini has called upon his side to reproduce the sort of determined performance that saw them come back from two goals down to beat Bayern Munich away from home in the group stage.
"Barcelona had a lot of the ball but they had it where we wanted," said Pellegrini. "They were not near our area; that's what we wanted. The team played with courage, with personality, and tried to draw the match with 10 men.
"We're going to try, of course, at the Camp Nou - we did it at Bayern when we lost at home. The second goal makes it difficult because the match was almost over and now [Barcelona] have a bigger advantage but we will have to see what we can do there."
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