The idea of complete possession, despite being enough to bring down City, lacked any real bite. Numerical superiority in the middle of the park, Messi playing in Xavi's role, and teamwork based around the simplest pass. Barça passed and passed, but found no real cutting edge in the final third. A significant fact given the Catalans' dominance.
Barça was unable to find that final ball or shot on goal. Nobody took it upon themselves to test Hart. With their backs against the wall, Barça is Messi. The Argentine against everyone, pass after pass, but only play that originates from the Barça star puts the opposition under any real pressure.
Barça remains obsessed with giving the ball to Alexis
Fully aware of the above, and strange as it may seem, Barça remains obsessed with giving the ball to Alexis. This, despite the fact that the Chilean is not one of those players that goes from good to great when his team needs a match-winner.
City, with the ball and eleven men on the pitch, had two ways to win the game. Firstly, for Yaya Toure to pull Busquets out of position and create space for Silva to take on Barça's back four. Secondly, crosses from Navas and Kolarov to set up Negredo one-on-one against Mascherano.
Once again one-touch short-pass football emerged victorious
In what had been a relatively evenly matched game, all it took was Barça's first successful ball into space to find Messi. It all ended there. The pass ended in a spot-kick, a goal and a sending-off: a single move that changed a game.
After opening the scoring, Barça shut up shop and opted to slow the game down, passing the ball and keeping it simple. Alves' goal killed off the encounter. Once again one-touch short-pass football emerged victorious.
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