A mouthwatering tie awaits as Barcelona, in free-scoring home form, hold a 2-0 advantage for the visit of a Manchester City side who need another famous away win. Catch the action live on SS4 HD, SS4 and live streaming on supersport.com
. An Barcelona team in free-scoring home form are in sight of a seventh successive Champions League quarterfinal as Manchester City seek another memorable away performance in the second leg of their round of 16 tie.
Chasing a first Champions League quarterfinal appearance, City will feel they can win anywhere having overturned a two-goal deficit to triumph 3-2 at Josep Guardiola's Bayern Munich in their last away game.
They will need another display of that ilk, having succumbed 2-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium to Lionel Messi's penalty and a late Daniel Alves effort. Only twice in the Champions League has a side recovered from a home first-leg defeat to go through, with both Ajax (1995/96) and Inter Milan (2010/11) overturning 1-0 defeats in the first contest.
This is City's first competitive visit to the Camp Nou but midfielder Yaya Touré, who joined from Barcelona in 2010, and director of football Txiki Begiristain, another Barcelona old boy, will feel at home. City have eight players signed from the Liga, including Spaniards Javi García, Jesús Navas, Álvaro Negredo and David Silva.
Manuel Pellegrini's City reached this stage by finishing second in Group A where they took 15 points – two more than Gerardo Martino's Barcelona managed in winning Group H.
Previous meetings
The clubs have met six times in friendly matches:
1952 Barcelona 5-1 Manchester City
1957 Barcelona 3-2 Manchester City
1974 Barcelona 3-2 Manchester City
1986 Barcelona 1-1 Manchester City (3-4 penalties, played in Huelva)
2003 Manchester City 2-1 Barcelona
2009 Barcelona 0-1 Manchester City
City won 1-0 at Barcelona in a pre-season friendly in August 2009, Martin Petrov the scorer. Touré was playing for Barcelona while Pablo Zabaleta is City's only survivor.
The lineups were:
Barcelona: Pinto, Montoya (Alves 46), Puyol (Bartra 30), Fontas (Piqué 65), Maxwell, Sergio, Y Touré (Jonathan 46), Gudjohnsen (Keita 46), Jeffren (Gai 54), Bojan (Ibrahimovic 46), Pedro (Messi 46).
Manchester City: Given, Onuoha, Dunne, K Touré (Ben Haim 46), Zabaleta (Garrido 65), Weiss, Wright-Phillips (Tripper 81), Ireland, Barry (Etuhu 69), Petrov, Tévez (Bellamy 65).
Prior to that, Barcelona visited City on 10 August 2003 for the English side's inaugural match in their current home stadium. Nicolas Anelka and Trevor Sinclair scored either side of Javier Saviola's goal for Barcelona, who included Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández in their starting lineup with Andrés Iniesta a second-half substitute.
Match background
Four-time European champions Barcelona last failed to reach the quarter-finals in 2006/07. At this stage last season they lost the first leg 2-0 at AC Milan but won 4-0 at the Camp Nou.
City are in the last 16 for the first time but in Pellegrini have a man who guided both Villarreal (2006, 2009) and Málaga (2012) to the quarterfinals.
Barcelona have progressed 32 out of the 34 times they won the away first leg in Uefa competition, most recently against Bayer 04 Leverkusen in the 2011/12 round of 16. They have let a two-goal advantage slip, however, a 4-2 win at FC Metz preceding a 4-1 home reverse in the 1984/85 European Cup Winners' Cup first round.
City have lost only one other home first leg in Uefa competition, against FC Midtjylland in the 2008/09 Uefa Cup second qualifying round; they triumphed by the same scoreline in Denmark and went through 4-2 on penalties.
Barcelona were the most prolific home side in the group stage, scoring 13 goals en route to winning all three Group H fixtures at the Camp Nou. The Blaugrana have lost just one of their last 25 European home outings, winning 19 of them.
With a trio of wins on their travels in Group D, City have already accumulated a club-record total of three away victories in a single European campaign.
Barcelona's record at home to English clubs is W15 D11 L2. They suffered Champions League elimination when last hosting Premier League visitors, Chelsea holding them to the 2-2 draw that secured the London club's progress to the 2012 final.
City's record in Spain is W1 D1 L3. Last season they led 2-1 at Real Madrid CF with three minutes to play but ended up losing 3-2. Their only victory was a 3-0 success at Villarreal CF in the 2011/12 group stage in which Touré (2) and Mario Balotelli got the goals.
Barcelona lost the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final 2-1 to Manchester United but defeated Arsenal in the 2006 Champions League final and United in the 2009 and 2011 finals.
Team ties
During nine seasons in Spain, Pellegrini coached Villarreal, Real Madrid and Málaga but enjoyed only four victories against Barcelona during that time, most recently a 2-1 success for Villarreal at the Camp Nou in March 2008. He lost both of his Liga encounters with Barcelona as Madrid coach in 2009/10, 1-0 away and 2-0 at home. The Chilean's overall record against Barcelona is P22 W4 D4 L14.
City's director of football, Begiristain, filled the same role at Barcelona between 2003 and 2010. He was a member of the Blaugrana's 1992 European Cup-winning squad and also helped the club win four Liga titles, the European Cup Winners' Cup and the Uefa Super Cup during seven years as a Barcelona player.
During three seasons with Barcelona between 2007 and 2010, Touré made 74 Liga appearances and scored four goals, helping the Blaugrana to two league titles and the 2009 Champions League crown.
Pablo Zabaleta spent three years at Barcelona's city rivals Espanyol between 2005 and 2008. He appeared in four Liga derbies against Barcelona, drawing two and losing two.
Agüero hit five goals in ten Liga outings against Barcelona for Club Atlético de Madrid between 2006 and 2011.
Gaël Clichy was an unused substitute in the Arsenal side defeated 2-1 by Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final. Clichy and Samir Nasri played alongside Cesc Fàbregas and Alex Song in the Arsenal teams beaten by Barcelona in the 2009/10 quarter-finals and 2010/11 round of 16.
Gerard Piqué spent four years in Manchester as a United player from 2004-08, making 23 appearances but never facing City.
In seven seasons in Arsenal's first team, Fàbregas won nine and lost just two of 13 meetings with City.
Navas played alongside Daniel Alves and Adriano in the Sevilla team that beat Barcelona 3-0 in the 2006 Super Cup.
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