Barca won’t relish Etihad visit

The City kit boss and former Latics star writes every week for Chron Sport

LIONEL Messi was absolutely brilliant as Barcelona thrashed Rayo Vallecano at the weekend.

I watched the game and it was a special performance from a superb player.

Barca and Messi travel to face Manchester City tonight in the last 16 of the Champions League for what is a truly big game. But I don’t believe we have anything to fear.

The Spanish giants have a host of great players. But they won’t relish coming to the Etihad Stadium one bit.

And there are a few of our players to contend with. It should be a cracking game and if we could take a bit of a cushion back to Spain for the return leg, that would be the perfect night from our point of view.

Our performance against Chelsea in the FA Cup on Sunday was far better than it had been in the Premier League meeting between the two clubs.

It was good to beat them and make it into the next round of a competition I still regard as very important.

The FA Cup is a great tradition over here and it will always be the most important domestic knock-out competition.