Samir Nasri
believes Manchester City showed Barcelona too much respect in last season’s Champions League and said City “won’t be scared” when the clubs meet again tonight.
A year ago they were knocked out 4-1 on aggregate at the same stage, losing the first leg of the last-16 match at the Etihad Stadium 2-0. With tonight’s game again at home, Nasri accepts City cannot make the same mistake.
“I think we respect them too much but we weren’t experienced [enough] to compete with a club like this,” he said. “They know how to win a Champions League. I think it was too much of a big game. We were not ready. This year is totally different. We know what we are capable of. We will respect them but we won’t be scared.”
Pablo Zabaleta believes Barcelona are concerned about facing City.
“They are talking about the fact Man City have great players up front who can create chances and score goals any time. It’s going to be a really interesting game between two good teams with great players.”
City fans are yet to buy fully into the Champions League, with the group match against Roma in September failing to sell out. Nasri believes victory over Barcelona to progress to the quarter-finals may finally capture their imagination.
“We have had a lot of success in the Premier League in the last years and the fans are really passionate about the Premier League,” the playmaker said. “The Champions League – we need to create our history to have this special relationship with the fans and a game like Barcelona can be a big step between us and the fans in the competition.”
Toure suspended
City will be without the suspended
Yaya Toure
. “About Yaya I always have the same answer,”
Manuel Pellegrini
said. “I always prefer to play with Yaya, he’s a very important player and our team plays better with him. We can play without Yaya because we played without him against Bayern and Roma [in the group phase] and won, and we have a good squad.”
Asked how good a result a goalless draw would be to take to Barcelona, the manager said: “I think at this stage, when you have to play for 180 minutes, it’s very important to win and after you win it’s important to try not to concede goals here at home and, if you cannot win, then of course it’s good to draw – and then 0-0 is better than 1-1.
“We didn’t play well in the group stages, especially at home against Roma and CSKA but this team demonstrated the personality and quality to qualify against Bayern Munich and Roma.”
City face a Barca side who have a frontline of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar.
“I think Messi and Ronaldo play in their own galaxy,” Nasri said. “They compete with each other. The rest, Suarez and Neymar are the same level as Sergio [Aguero].”
Seven goals
Since Suarez left Liverpool in a £75 million move he has managed only seven goals in 22 games for Barca. Nasri believes the Uruguayan has to accept playing a secondary role.
“At Liverpool he was the main striker. You are not going to score 70 goals. He makes a lot of assists and opens up space for Messi and Neymar. He is good, he just doesn’t score as much. At Liverpool the team was built around him. At Barcelona you cannot do that when you have Messi at his prime. When you arrive at a big club you have to deal with things like that.”
Messi and Gerard Pique were photographed in a casino on Sunday night, only hours before departing for Manchester. After the club's first home defeat since November on Saturday, the pair were pictured in the Daily Mail outside a casino along with their former Camp Nou team-mate Cesc Fabregas. Pique stated last night that it was his "private life" and Luis Enrique, Barca's coach, attempted to shrug off the issue. Guardian Service
