Barcelona have promised to send Manchester City for a ride on their passing carousel as they attempt to secure their passage into the Champions League quarter-finals tonight.
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The Catalan giants lead 2-1 from the first leg and will rely upon their famed ability to frustrate the opposition by dominating possession – an approach which led then Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson to coin the phrase “passing carousel” after his team lost to Barca in the 2009 final.
Other than Xavi, nobody has done more over the years to establish Barca’s passing brilliance than Andres Iniesta. And the midfielder pledged that City will find the ball hard to come by at the Nou Camp tonight as the English champions seek to overturn the deficit.
“We will have to go out there and play in a very comprehensive manner,” said the experienced Spanish international. “We need to have lots of ball possession so they suffer, so they have to follow the ball.”
With stars such as Lionel Messi, Neymar, Luis Suarez and Ivan Rakitic all set to start, Iniesta believes his team’s technical quality will allow them to take control of the encounter, similar to the manner they dominated the opening 45 minutes of the first leg at the Etihad Stadium, where they went two ahead through a brace from Suarez.
Although City fought back after the break and halved the deficit through Sergio Aguero, there was no room for doubt over which team had dominated the game and Iniesta is confident Barca can do the same again.
“We need to find the right moments to be dangerous, we need to find our superior skills when ever possible. It is about minimising their potential,” he added. “If we do not achieve these objectives, Manchester City can achieve their own. We have to control what is going on at every different moment.”
The same message was reinforced by Barca boss Luis Enrique, who also stressed the need for his team to dictate the flow of the action.
City have an enormous task tomorrow v Barca, no English teams in last 8 is a real possibility
— Ian Abrahams (Moose) (@BroadcastMoose) March 17, 2015
“Having possession is one of our objectives in every game,” said Enrique. “There is only one ball and our objective is to keep it for as long as possible. That will allow us to be in control and will be the key for the development of the game.”
City have been heavily criticised during the build-up to the encounter, which has seen their Premier League title challenge suffer a series of blows including a shock 1-0 defeat at lowly Burnley on Saturday.
But Enrique refused to accept the suggestion that his team already have one foot in the last eight or that they were vastly superior to the English team in Manchester three weeks ago.
“We’re not going to see the game that way, we’ll see it as we did before the first leg,” he added. “We’re playing against one of the favourites to win this competition – you only have to look at their players to see how much potential they have. They have every chance of turning this tie around and I’m sure they will be clinging on to that hope.”
Enrique confirmed that midfielder Sergio Busquets will be sidelined with the ankle injury he suffered in the Copa del Rey victory at Villarreal a fortnight ago, meaning Javier Mascherano is set to take his place in the centre of the pitch.
And although Mascherano has largely lined up in defence during his four-and-a-half years in Spain, Enrique is perfectly comfortable with redeploying him in the midfield position he occupies at international level for Argentina.
“Each player has his nuances and with Mascherano his work rate is so evident,” he enthused. “His performances have been amazing,”
After tonight, Barca’s attentions will quickly turn to an El Clasico showdown with arch rivals Real Madrid, and Iniesta added: “What better way is there to go into Sunday than having won, feeling good and being closer to our objective in the Champions League?”
