City brings down team Guardiola built
Barcelona still leads Group C, but Manchester City salvages campaign with surprising win
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND— Pep Guardiola brought down the footballing superpower he helped to create, leading Manchester City to a 3-1 win over Barcelona in a landmark Champions League result for the English club on Tuesday.
The victory that City and its Abu Dhabi ownership has craved since joining the Europe elite in 2011 was achieved the hard way, too, coming after Lionel Messi gave Barcelona a 21st-minute lead with his 90th goal in the Champions League.
City took advantage of a defensive error to equalize through Ilkay Gun- dogan in the 39th minute and swarmed all over Barcelona in the second half, with a free kick from Kevin De Bruyne and Gundogan’s second goal completing the comeback.
City has modelled itself on Barcelona — in the boardroom, on the field and most recently in the dugout by bringing in Guardiola, who coached Barcelona to 14 trophies from 200812 and turned the Messi-inspired team into perhaps the greatest club side ever.
For that reason, it was the sweetest of wins for City.
“Now we realize we won against the best team (in the world),” Guardiola said. “For the future generations, they are going to realize, ‘Wow, these guys are able to beat the best team.’ ”
It was also crucial in the short term for City, reigniting its Group C cam- paign that would have been on the rocks with a loss at Etihad Stadium. City is now two points behind firstplace Barcelona after four games, with both teams big favourites to progress to the last 16.
For 38 minutes, Barcelona looked to be rolling to a sixth straight win over City in the last four seasons in the Champions League, with City’s defence carved open by the potent front three of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
But the turning point in the match was an error from Barcelona right back Sergi Roberto, whose inside pass to Sergio Busquets was wayward and collected by Sergio Aguero. He slipped in Raheem Sterling, who had the vision to slide a cross over to Gundogan to tap in left-footed at the far post.
“When you concede a goal in that way, it is normal that you go through a bad period,” Luis Enrique said.
That bad period lasted the rest of the game.
Group A: Arsenal and PSG are tied with10 points and each could win the group — and seeded status in the round of16 draw — when they play in London on Nov. 23.
Both needed late goals to secure three points on Tuesday.
PSG dominated at Basel but a 2-1 win was only sealed in the 90th by defender Thomas Meunier’s volleyed shot from outside the penalty area into the top right corner of the net.
Arsenal advanced from its group for a 17th consecutive when Mezut Ozil collected a through ball, lifted it over Ludogorets goalkeeper Milan Borjan, and then glided past two defenders before calmly slotting into an empty net.
Group B: In a tight group, Napoli and Benfica have seven points while unbeaten Besiktas has six. Penalties were key to Besiktas and Napoli drawing 1-1 in Istanbul, and Benfica beating visiting Dynamo Kyiv 1-0.
Besiktas led in the 79th when Ricardo Queresma scored from the spot, and Napoli talisman Marek Hamsik’s arching shot from distance levelled three minutes later.
Group D: Atletico, a Champions League finalist in two of the past three seasons, is the only club with four wins. Antoine Griezmann’s stoppage time goal, adding to his acrobatic opener in the 28th, clinched a 2-1 win against Russian newcomer Rostov.
Bayern forward Robert Lewandowski scored twice in a comeback 2-1 win in Eindhoven.