Aitana Bonmatí scored Barcelona’s second goal against Manchester City.Photograph: Europa Press Sports/Europa Press/Getty Images
Barcelona reminded everybody why they are the reigning European champions as they produced a scintillating performance to dismantle Manchester City and claim top spot in Group D in the Women’s Champions League.
The Spanish league leaders, who have won all 13 of their domestic matches this season with a +50 goal difference, played with a great intensity and with such high quality on the ball that they could easily have won the game by a humiliating margin. Thanks largely to a superb performance from the Manchester City goalkeeper, Khiara Keating, who produced five top-quality saves, and some wasteful finishing, the home side had to settle for a mere 3-0 victory. But that scoreline was still sufficient for them to overhaul their 2-0 defeat in October’s reverse fixture in Manchester and top the group by virtue of their superior record in these two side’s head-to-head meetings.
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Both teams were already sure of their places in the knockout stages of the competition but Barcelona, who scored through Clàudia Pina’s low strike, Aitana Bonmatí’s calm one-on-one finish and Alexia Putellas’s thumping strike from the edge of the box, will now avoid the other three group winners in the draw for the quarter-finals.
In the absence of key first-team regulars through injury including their top goalscorer the Jamaica striker Khadija Shaw, their England winger Lauren Hemp, their captain and reliable centre-back Alex Greenwood and the Netherlands star Vivianne Miedema, this away fixture was always likely to be extremely difficult for Gareth Taylor’s side, and so it proved as the hosts applied relentless pressure.
This was Manchester City’s second successive defeat in all competitions after Sunday’s shock loss in the Women’s Super League away at Everton, in a week which has exposed vulnerabilities in their squad and a relative lack of strength in depth, compared to rivals such as Barcelona and Chelsea, who have appeared able to field an experience, world-class starting side even at times when they have had several stars sidelines. Manchester City, at present, cannot, and Taylor was forced to name three 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old on his depleted bench, which only included eight players compared to Barcelona’s 12 substitutes.