Barcelona 4, Manchester City 0: Stop pressing self-destruct button – Guardiola issues Pep talk
Deflated Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola demanded his side stop pressing the self-destruct button after enduring a miserable return to Catalonia as Barcelona ran riot at Camp Nou.
Ballon d’Or holder Lionel Messi once again showcased his lethal and majestic talent by netting the 37th hat-trick of his Barcelona career before Neymar scored a late fourth.
Both sides finished a man light after City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo and Barcelona’s Jeremy Mathieu were given their marching orders on a night when the five-time European champions tightened their grip on Group C.
“At that level it is hard, but until it was 10 v 11 the game was open and we competed against a very good team with huge personality and created enough chances to score. After that the game was over,” said Guardiola, who chose not to start striker Sergio Aguero.
“Since Glasgow [their 3-3 draw at Celtic], every game something like that has happened. Last game we missed penalties, there have been own goals and other things and we must change the dynamic. But I asked my players to play with personality and we did it.”
Barcelona opened the scoring on 17 minutes when an alert Messi took full advantage of an unfortunate slip by Fernandinho to waltz through an exposed City defence, round former team-mate Bravo and calmly slot home.
Guardiola’s charges began to assert themselves in the latter stages of the half and Ilkay Gundogan slalomed his way past Barcelona’s backline only for goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen to produce an instinctive one-handed save.
City sensed an opportunity and centre-half John Stones guided a free header past Ter Stegen’s left-hand post, while at the other end Bravo thwarted Luis Suarez with his feet before punching clear the looping rebound.
Bravo, however, was given a straight red card eight minutes into the second period for handling outside his penalty area from Suarez’s attempted lob after the goalkeeper’s weak clearance had left him in no man’s land.
The hosts took full advantage of Bravo’s error shortly after the hour mark as Messi cut inside substitute Gael Clichy and fired low beyond stand-in stopper Willy Caballero.
City retaliated and Ter Stegen thwarted Kevin de Bruyne, although it was Messi who completed his hat-trick when Suarez latched onto Gundogan’s errant backpass ahead of a leaden-footed Stones and squared for the sublime Argentine.
Barcelona were reduced to 10 men inside the final 20 minutes when Mathieu was dismissed for a senseless lunge on Raheem Sterling, while Cabellero saved a late Neymar penalty.
Neymar was not to be denied and made amends with a last-gasp strike, turning Stones inside out, and finishing an intricate move, very much in the Guardiola mould. City, meanwhile, are now winless in four matches.