What a performance; Brilliant European moment. This result and performance sends a message, certainly to our players but also to the rest of the world that we are capable of competing against and defeating any team in Europe. All it takes is the belief and the mentality of fearlessness and the willingness to express and play our football, which was what transpired today.
The game started like the last game, a lot of tactical war and sword fighting between the two teams, and I think we had the upper hand looking more likely to score up until the break that led to their first goal. After that, perhaps naturally the players were flooded with dread of history repeating itself and all the uncertainty that entails and so they were in a poor state after the Barcelona goal, which gave Barcelona some momentum at that point. But we kept going, kept faith in Guardiola's approach- continued to press them and forced an error, which led to our goal. Great instant lay off from Aguero.. and I talk about lack of fear and good mentality and that is exactly what Sterling showed with that composed, sublime pass to Gundogan- the pass that won the tie I call it and that moment set the tone for the rest of the game.
In the second half, after some astute tactical adjustments, the obvious one being De Bruyne going down the middle, we stepped up the performance and approach and exposed Barcelona even more by dominating the middle of the park, cutting off Messi, Suarez and Neymar from their midfield suppliers and utterly picking them off with interceptions and tackles to win the ball back. This led to a lot of chances on the break. De Bruyne stepped up and expressed himself with confidence and belief- he has like'' Kolarov!! walk away.. Aguero jog on, this is my moment'' and boy did he express himself with a typical, trademark De Bruyne goal. After that we dominated and should have scored even more than we did and eventually got the third after another astute decision by Guardiola.
Guardiola is brilliant, it is clear, he deserves a lot of credit for this match. The first leg was also spot on in a tactical sense but jeopardized by errors (most important being the keeper's) and some mental issues. In this leg however,we took it to them, played our game and played with the right mentality (as Gundogan said) and completely deserved the win.
Players like Zabaleta..what happened to him?.. he was immense today, like the Zabaleta of old. Sterling showed why he is a star player and whole team as a whole did their jobs and played well. Gundogan is a fox in the box, makes brilliant runs in the box and De Bruyne is just a dynamic beast.
Fantastic moment and this will set the team up for the upcoming games and enhance the spirit and belief as Guardiola continues to work his magic on the team.