There will be no English teams in the UEFA Champions League quarter
finals draw after Manchester City, the last remaining of the four representatives
failed to upset the odds in their second leg clash with Barcelona.
Manuel Pellegrini’s men, having lost 2-1 at home were unable
to overturn the deficit at Camp Nou where Lionel Messi once again underlined
why he’s being considered by many as the best footballer on the planet. The Argentine
produced a superman-esque performance which was capped with a cool-headed
assist for Ivan Rakitic who scored the only goal of the night.
The 1-0 win for Barcelona was an injustice to them on a
night when they exposed Man City’s European football inexperience. However, it
was justice to Joe Hart who besides conceding the goal, was the only Manchester
City player on the pitch who performed in a manner befitting the occasion.
Hart pulled one point blank save after another, keeping Messi,
Luis Suarez and Neymar at bay time and again.
He was only slightly outdone by his opposite number,
Marc-Andre ter Stegen who saved a Sergio Aguero penalty with 13 minutes to go
to save Barcelona a nervy finish.
As they walked off the pitch having lost 1-0 on the night
and 3-1 on aggregate, even the most diehard of Man City players must have said
to himself that they were not anywhere near the best team over the two legs.
Much had been written pre-match how in their past three encounters, they had
been reduced to ten men.
However, had they introduced a 12th man at the Camp
Nou, Barcelona would have still progressed.
And so it was written and so it came to pass that the
2014-15 Champions League season won’t have an English team in the last 8.
Liverpool exited at the group stage, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City
followed having gone just one step past the Merseysiders.
The last 8 going into the draw has three Spanish clubs; Real
Madrid, Atletico Madrid and Barcelona, with the rest having one representative each, AS Monaco
(France), FC Porto (Portugal), Bayern Munich (Germany), and Juventus (Italy).
You can only imagine how somber the English nation will be
when the draw is conducted and they realize they have just taken yet another step backward.
And That's thesteifmastertake!!
No comments:
Post a Comment