Manchester City and Barcelona’s Uefa Champions League round of 16 first leg will be their first competitive encounter, but there are unlikely to be too many surprises for either side given the hosts’ Spanish connections.
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City’s squad features four Spaniards – Javi García, Jesús Navas, Álvaro Negredo and David Silva – along with four more players also signed from Spain’s top flight including Yaya Touré, who joined from Barcelona in 2010.
Additionally they have in Manuel Pellegrini a coach well acquainted with the Spanish game, and in director of football Txiki Begiristain a man who knows Barcelona better than most.
Pellegrini’s City reached this stage by finishing second in Group A where they took 15 points – two more than Gerardo Martino’s Barcelona managed in winning Group H.
Previous meetings The clubs have met six times in friendly matches:
1952 Barcelona 5-1 Manchester City
1957 Barcelona 3-2 Manchester City
1974 Barcelona 3-2 Manchester City
1986 Barcelona 1-1 Manchester City (3-4 penalties, played in Huelva)
2003 Manchester City 2-1 Barcelona
2009 Barcelona 0-1 Manchester City
Barcelona visited City on 10 August 2003 for their inaugural match in a stadium built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games. Nicolas Anelka and Trevor Sinclair scored either side of Javier Saviola’s goal for Barcelona, who included Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández in their starting XI with Andrés Iniesta a second-half substitute.
City won 1-0 at Barcelona in a pre-season friendly in August 2009, Martin Petrov the scorer. Touré was playing for Barcelona while Pablo Zabaleta is City’s only survivor.
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