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By Teddy Cutler
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Pep Guardiola meets the team whose philosophy he built on Tuesday evening, as Barcelona travels to Etihad Stadium for a Champions League rematch.
Two weeks ago, Guardiola's Manchester City was humbled 4-0, individual mistakes putting its progress in Europe's elite club competition in peril. With home advantage, Guardiola must find a way of stopping Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar—world football's most dangerous forward line.
How will City get on, and can Arsenal maintain its serene progress towards knockout stage qualification? Newsweek has Tuesday's Champions League previews.
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Manchester City vs Barcelona
What reason for the salivation when Barcelona dished out such a comprehensive mullering to Pep Guardiola's side two weeks ago in Spain?
Reason one: said mullering was not quite as comprehensive as 4-0 suggested. For much of the first half in Camp Nou, City held its own against the World's Greatest Team (™), with the tactic of leaving out Sergio Aguero and thronging the midfield appearing to work.
What held Guardiola back, and eventually embarrassed him, were individual errors from John Stones and Claudio Bravo, most notably. Against West Bromwich Albion at the weekend, City looked to have ironed over those errors.
Reason Two: said mullering came with Andres Iniesta, the Barcelona captain. Now Iniesta is out for six to eight weeks, having injured knee ligaments against Valencia on October 22. Barcelona has its famed front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar fit and firing, but the firing mechanism in the pistol is missing. Arda Turan is a replacement in a similar, nimble mold, but he is just returning from injury.
Barcelona is also missing half of coach Luis Enrique's preferred defense, with Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba out injured. Expect Aguero to play from the start this time, City to have more of the ball—and cool Pep to suffer meltdown if Willy Caballero, standing in for the suspended Bravo, makes any Bravo-esque errors.
Ludogorets vs Arsenal
"6-0 flattered Arsenal," Arsene Wenger said in his pre-match briefing, warning of complacency against the Bulgarian league title holder.
But making it through the Champions League group stages has not been Arsenal's problem in recent seasons. For 13 years, Wenger's team has made it to the knockout rounds. Even in 2002-03, the last time it failed, it was in the second group stage, the Champions League's old format.
In each of the past six seasons, Arsenal has exited at the round of 16. This year, it looks almost impossible for it to fail again—Wenger's club is joint top of Group A with Paris Saint-Germain on seven points, with Basel a distant third on one—but the ultimate target is progression into the sharp end of the tournament. In that sense, Wenger has a point. Arsenal must push PSG to finish top of the group, handing it a potentially easier draw in the first knockout round. That starts in Bulgaria on Tuesday evening.
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