Hart head and shoulders above all, but Man City make CL exit at Barca

England expects every man will do his duty. Only Joe Hart was worthy of those famous words, as the Three Lions goalie made save after save, and still Manchester City lost in the Nou Camp to Barcelona, ending all hope of a Premier League side reaching the Champions League quarter-finals.

Manuel Pellegrini’s men are six points adrift of Chelsea in the bid to retain their title, and Coral offer odds of 14/1 on the trophy remaining at the Etihad. Without seeing Jose Mourinho slip up, the Chilean coach should consider his job prospects bleak.

Whether it’s tragic or ironic depends on your point of view, but City failed utterly to learn a crystal clear lesson from the first leg; Barcelona have changed things up tactically. On a night when Pellegrini needed his spine to be solid, he saw the Catalan giants cut through his charges like Toledo’s famed Spanish steel blades through butter.

City skipper Vincent Kompany’s slump continued, and the Belgian centre back was fortunate not to see his early dawdling in possession punished by Neymar, who hit the base of the post early on. Barca went up through the gears rapidly, with Hart then needing to be at his best to deny Lionel Messi with his legs after a lightning quick one-two with Andres Iniesta.

On half an hour, the hosts extended their aggregate advantage to 3-1 with another superb piece of counter-attacking play. Barcelona boss Luis Enrique’s innovation of their style was applauded by one of his predecessors Pep Guardiola, watching on from the Nou Camp crowd.

Messi, who was magnificent throughout and did everything but score, switched play superbly on the break from right to left, finding Barca summer buy Ivan Rakitic. The Croatia midfielder chested down this crossfield pass before deftly lobbing Hart.

Staggering City were lucky to go in on the night just one down at half time, with first leg threat Luis Suarez missing two late efforts. A free header from a corner sailed wide before the Uruguay and ex-Liverpool frontman chipped Hart, but saw the ball kiss the far post when found by a clever Neymar through-ball.