Taylor vows to learn as City fall short in comeback against Barca

Beckie 20,

Mewis 65 pen Barcelona win 4-2 on agg

Manchester City will “stick together” and use the experience of their quarter-final defeat by Barcelona yesterday to attempt to go further in the Women’s Champions

League next season, said City manager Gareth Taylor.

A deserved 2-1 home win was not enough for Taylor’s side to overturn the advantage the Catalan giants held from the first leg, as the Spanish league leaders progressed to face either Lyon or Paris St-germain.

Needing to score at least three times against a side who have only conceded three league goals all season, the English club’s chances seemed slim. They got the relatively early goal they had craved as Canada’s Janine Beckie bundled in from a corner but, as City built up pressure, a second-half counter-attack from Barca saw Nigeria’s Asisat Oshoala slot in an away goal to leave the hosts needing four more.

They found one of those through United States midfielder Sam Mewis’s penalty but, after heavy pressing in the first half, their intensity dropped in the closing stages.

City did create sufficient chances to give themselves hope, but they were not quite clinical enough with them. Ellen White fired straight at the keeper twice, while Beckie had two efforts superbly saved.

“We had to chase the game and be aggressive,” Taylor said. “I was proud of the girls, they left everything out there. We just came up a little bit short. You need that luck to go with you as well. These experiences will stand us in good stead for next year, I look forward to meeting them [Barcelona] again.”

Manchester City (4-3-3) Roebuck; Bronze (Weir 73), Dahlkemper, Greenwood, Morgan; Lavelle, Walsh, Mewis (Coombs 80); Beckie, White (Stanway 73), Kelly (Park 86). Subs Benameur (g), Mannion, Davies. Booked Kelly.

Barcelona (4-3-3) Panos; Torrezno, Pereira (Fernandez, 89), Maria Leon (Losada 79), Ouhabi; Bonmati, Guijarro, Alexia; Graham Hansen (Martens 61), Oshoala (Crnogorcevic 79), Mariona (Vilamala 89). Subs Coll (g), Laia Codina, Melanie. Booked Pereira.

Referee Monika Mularczyk (Poland).