Barcelona Burn Manchester City in Champions League

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The UEFA Champions League returned today with the first leg of the knock-rounds featuring a big match between English giants Manchester City hosting Spanish powerhouse Barcelona.  Naturally the visitors from La Liga had a strong Spanish presence, but City too fielded Spanish players David Silva, Álvaro Negredo, and Jesús Navas in their offense.

As Barcelona are prone to do, the possession was heavily in their favor which limited the chances from Manchester City.  At half-time there was no score with only three shots on target combined between the clubs.  City had defended the potent Barcelona attack well for the first forty-five minutes, but the second-half was rather disastrous.

Barcelona won a penalty when Messi was fouled by centerback Martín Demichelis in the box.  The referee determined the foul was an effort to deny a "goal scoring opportunity" and sent Demichelis off with a red card.  Messi then scored from the spot to put Barcelona ahead (54').

On the verge of stoppage-time Barcelona added a second goal from fullback Dani Alves.  Coming in late off the bench, Neymar played Alves in-on-goal and the fullback score with a nutmeg shot on keeper Joe Hart (90').

Manchester City had a tall task ahead trying to score one goal when they replay at Camp Nou, but the second goal may have just ended their Champions League hopes.  City will have several weeks to come up with a new game plan before heading to Spain for the second leg on March 12th.