Barcelona Send Manchester City Out Of Champions League

Manchester City was the only surviving EPL team in the Europe’s elite league with Arsenal having been bundled out on Tuesday night and Chelsea elimination last week.

Going into the match, Manchester City needed to score four clean goals having lost the first leg 3-1 at Etihad in England.

Ivan Rakitic scored the only goal of the night after half an hour as he lofted home from a majestic Lionel Messi pass.

The English champions had their chances in the second half, but any hopes of a historic comeback were ended when Marc-Andre ter Stegen produced a stunning penalty save from Sergio Aguero 12 minutes from time.

However, it was his opposite number who was the star of the show as Hart time and again prevented Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez from piling on more agony for City.

CITY STOPPER

Barca will now join La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid as well as Juventus, Porto, PSG, Bayern, Monaco in Friday's draw for the last eight to be held UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

“A lot of them just hit me tonight – I just tried to stay big. It was busy. I just tried to smother them as much as I could," said Hart, who had also saved a Messi penalty in the first leg.

"I wanted that first leg penalty save to count and unfortunately it hasn't.

"We've gone out to a magnificent side but that's the second time in two years and that's disappointing. They've got fantastic players but we've had a big chance and unfortunately we didn't take it."

Barcelona boss Luis Enrique congratulated the City stopper, but felt a more comprehensive score line would have better reflected Barca's dominance.

"We had an incredible number of chances, which isn't normal in this type of game," said the Spaniard.

"We deserved to win much more comfortably given the chances we had."

Barcelona face Real Madrid in a potentially decisive clash in the Spanish title race on Sunday, but Luis Enrique's men showed their minds were on the job in hand from the off and should have been ahead after just six minutes.

Source: AFP