Manchester City defender Martin Demichelis feels that his red card suspension against Barcelona in last year’s Champions League tie will have no bearing on tomorrow’s clash and he wants compatriot Sergio Aguero to help trounce the Lionel Messi led Catalans.

After successfully navigating their respective groups, the Citizens and the Catalan giants have been drawn to play each other in a Champions League round of 16 tie, the first leg of which is due to be played tomorrow at the Etihad Stadium.




Their tie is a repeat of last year’s encounter between the two teams at the same stage when Barcelona got the better of Manuel Pellegrini’s side and advanced to the quarter-finals.

In the first leg played at the Etihad, Demichelis was sent off for a foul on Messi in the box. The forward converted the resultant penalty to give the visitors a 1-0 lead and Barcelona took full advantage of a ten-man Manchester City to score a late goal to take home a 2-0 win.
 


Demichelis feels that the foul that led to his suspension was an unfortunate sequence of play which handed the initiative to Barcelona and after that it became an uphill task for the hosts to subdue the visitors.

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“It was an unfortunate play for me and the team that triggered the tie and made it unbalanced, until then the game was very even”, he was quoted as saying by Catalan daily Sport.

“It was a move that greatly influenced the outcome, but tomorrow is a new game and what happened in the past is useless and it will have no bearing in this tie whether good or bad.”

The match will see Demichelis’ compatriots Messi and Aguero on opposing sides. The 34-year-old added that the two strikers are among the best players that he has seen in his career, and he hopes that Premier League’s top scorer has a better tie than the Argentina national team captain.

“Leo and Kun are great friends, two of the best players that I have seen in football, it will be nice for them to go head-to-head at such a high level, but I hope Kun is brighter than Leo.”

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