Manchester City Beat Barcelona at Their Own Game in a Pep Guardiola Masterclass

Pep Guardiola could be forgiven for feeling fairly smug for a few days following Manchester City’s success over Barcelona on Tuesday night in the Champions League.

Tasked with getting the better of one of the toughest teams to beat in world football, most managers would try to stifle their opponents by conceding possession and being incredibly difficult to break down. On the attack, they'd probably hope for one chance and for their side to take it in a smash-and-grab style match—the so-called Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis method.

It pays plenty of respect to the opposition. That style acknowledges that Barcelona would have a lot of the ball, and it concedes possession to them in order to limit the number of opportunities they can create. It's bizarrely the tactic that's recently caused City problems when used by Everton and, to a lesser extent, Southampton.

However, Guardiola isn't like most other managers. He still stifled the likes of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar by cutting down the amount of times they were able to get on to the ball in dangerous areas, but there wasn't a moment's thought given to spending 90 minutes defending the 0-0 inside his own box and hoping for a swift breakaway.

Instead, the Catalan stopped the supply lines at their source, giving the Spanish champions no room to breathe in their own half or in the midfield. It worked for the majority of the match, aside from a 15-minute spell following the opening goal.

And it's worth adding that the opening goal came against the run of play.

When Messi found the back of Willy Caballero's net midway through the first half, the home fans were expecting another evening of the "same old story." There have been spells in the Champions League in the past when City have looked good, only to take a knock or setback and find themselves on the losing side.

They'd go away licking their wounds and cursing their bad luck, and they would usually say they'd learn from the experience in post-match interviews. It often centred around missing good chances or having a poor refereeing call go against them.

That happened on Tuesday, too. Raheem Sterling had a right to be apoplectic when he was yellow-carded for diving after clearly being chopped down inside the Barcelona box. Quite how the referee failed to spot that he was fouled is a mystery, but it's the type of thing that would have riled the old City up and they'd have thrown their toys out of the pram.

They'd have subsequently lost the match, too—especially after falling behind.

It took guts for Guardiola to persist with his Plan A at that point. Barcelona were ripping City apart, and while they didn't create much of note, they did dominate the ball. For the 15-minute period following the opening goal, the home side were chasing shadows, managing just 22 per cent possession, per BT Sport's TV coverage, and there was the real danger that they could have capitulated once more.

But they didn't. And they got their foot back on to the ball, gradually regaining control of the game.

Just as Roberto Mancini had to instil a winning mentality in the players when he arrived in December 2009—culminating in him leading them to FA Cup and Premier League success in his next two seasons—Guardiola is having to do the same for the Champions League.

This team deserves to be there as one of the best performers in their domestic division in the last five years, even if 2014-15 and 2015-16 were underwhelming compared to their original aims. Despite that, City have been playing like happy-go-lucky scamps in Europe, con artists who had faked their way into the competition, waiting to be found out.

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Guardiola's calming influence and belief in his own judgement meant that City didn't go into headless-chicken mode when Barcelona opened the scoring. Instead, they continued to press the ball in very difficult circumstances, refusing to feel sorry for themselves as luck appeared to conspire against them for yet another evening.

There's an argument in football that winning teams create their own fortune. City certainly got lucky for their equaliser—a mistake presented the ball to Sergio Aguero on the edge of the Barcelona box, and the chance was finished off by Ilkay Gundogan after Sterling had unselfishly squared it when the fans were screaming for a shot.

Had Aguero not been closing down the Barcelona defence and putting pressure on Sergi Roberto, then the right-back wouldn't have given away possession so cheaply. It's a goal City wouldn't have scored under the smash-and-grab method. They made their own luck.

By the time the second half started, Guardiola had made a subtle change to his team. There were no substitutions, but Kevin De Bruyne had been moved more centrally to allow him to get on to the ball after a pretty anonymous first 45 minutes. His pressure and City's intelligent positioning meant Barcelona had no answers for the home side for a long time.

It's not often the Spanish champions aren't able to pass their way out of trouble. But on Tuesday, they were outdone by City in terms of ball movement. The Sky Blues weren't afraid to go back to Caballero when being chased by an opponent, and the ball was pinged around with such confidence it looked like the hosts had been playing tiki-taka football for a decade and Barcelona were new to the party.

De Bruyne's masterful free-kick put City in front, and while many fans began to get edgy, the home team continued to take risks, leave gaps and try to force the Catalan giants into mistakes.

The errors continued, too. More square passes created opportunities for the Premier League leaders to shoot at Marc-Andre ter Stegen's goal, while the visitors seemed rattled and were unable to string together passes.

The away side threatened once more, hitting Caballero's crossbar at 2-1. It left Luis Enrique scratching his head, as Guardiola was doing to Barcelona what they do to so many other teams.

There was more good fortune, too, but it didn't favour City undeservedly. Aguero clearly handled the ball in the buildup to Gundogan's second goal, as he tried to turn Jesus Navas' cross into the empty net.

In truth, he couldn't have gotten his arm away, and it wasn't in an unnatural position, so it would have been harsh to penalise him. But Barcelona's protests that the German's strike shouldn't have counted were understandable.

Perhaps they were borne out of frustration that they weren't able to escape the City pressure and a game that had been well within their grasp heading into half-time was quickly getting away from them midway through the second period.

Guardiola's critics have said they'd prefer a goalkeeper who hoofs the ball and a team that knows when to smash it into Row Z, rather than taking chances in possession at the back. They prefer the safety-first approach—the Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis method.

However, City's display against Barcelona proved Guardiola's system can work against the very best teams, and as an added bonus, it was an enjoyable match for home fans (and neutrals) to watch.

On Tuesday night, there was no self-doubt in City's team for the first time in a huge Champions League game. Guardiola's certainly beginning to break that mental barrier, and the team are now well on their way to feeling at home in the competition.

Many will suggest the performance was a one-off. Guardiola will be planning to prove them wrong.