Champions League: Man City Mauled By Barcelona As Bravo Sees Red And Messi Bags Hat-Trick (Photos & Highlights)

Alan Duffy

19th, October 2016

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Pep Guardiola endured a horror night at the Camp Nou on Wednesday, as he watched his old side Barcelona batter Manchester City via a 4-0 scoreline.

With Sergio Aguero on the bench, the Citizens were still competitive in the first-half.

However, a slip from Fernandinho allowed Lionel Messi to nab his first of the night on 17 minutes.

Any chance of the Premier League side clawing their way back into the game was killed off soon after break, when Claudio Bravo’s ball-playing prowess got him into a world of trouble.

Coming out of his box, the Chilean made a right mess of a pass, gifting the ball to Luis Suarez who instantly tried to chip the ‘keeper.

However, some way out of his box, Bravo instinctively blocked the ball with his hands, which led to an inevitable red card.

With the floodgates open, Messi then notched his 37th club hat-trick soon after as the Citizens collapsed.

Barca sub Jeremy Mathieu would receive his marching orders via a second yellow card for a foul on Raheem Sterling, but it was the Catalans who would score the last goal of the game, courtesy of a fine effort from Neymar, who made up for an earlier penalty miss.

While Bravo’s sending-off certainly had a huge bearing on the game, one imagines that a chastened Guardiola will be frustrated by his side’s error-strewn performance.

Indeed, City have now gone four games without a win with Pep’s honeymoon period at the Etihad now very much over.

Here’s the Group C standings….

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Highlights…

(Highlights: Footytube)