In less than an hour Manchester City and Barcelona will kick-off at the Ethiad Stadium, beginning one of more more anticipated Round of 16 ties in this season’s Champions League. Before things get going, here’s the starting lineups for both teams.
Manchester City vs. Barcelona: Lineups
Manuel Pellegrini has deployed Aleksandar Kolarov in an interesting position for Manchester City while the trio of Xavi, Inesta and Fàbregas starts for Barca.
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Manuel Pellegrini has put out an interesting lineup to deal with Barcelona's dynamic attack. Aleksandar Kolarov will play in the midfield as a defensive winger, presumably to help deal with the Barcelona fullbacks who love to bomb forward on the attack. David Silva lines up the middle behind Álvaro Negredo and Fernandinho returns from injury into his deep midfield spot.
After some doubts about the fitness of Javier Mascherano in the lead up to the Tuesday's match, the defender is fit and in the starting eleven for Gerardo Martino. The Barca head coach has also chosen to get Xavi, Andrés Iniesta and Cesc Fábregas on the field together, with Iniesta apparently playing up front with Messi and Alexis Sánchez. Barca have lined up like this before this season but it's not the normal strategy put forth by Martino.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Joe Hart; Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Martin Demichelis, Gaël Clichy; Yaya Touré, Fernandinho; Jesus Navas, David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov; Álvaro Negredo.
Barcelona (4-3-3): Victor Valdés, Dani Alves, Gerard Piqué, Javier Mascherano, Jordi Alba; Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Cesc Fàbregas; Lionel Messi, Alexis Sánchez, Andrés Iniesta.
