I thought Silva was probably the best player on the pitch, even with the circumstances.

Alexis was good by his standards (which are ridicilously low), no worries though, Neymar is starting on Camp Nou

Alves: "Man City will never be Barca. They are a modern club built on big transfers, I think Arsenal play the best football in England".

Too easy to make Demichelis the villain tonight. I actually thought he was having a very good game up until that fatal moment. That through ball by Iniesta caught Kompany napping as Messi slipped back into an onside position, and Demichelis took the bullet for it. Very unlucky. And he even timed it well enough to foul Messi outside the box.

Iniesta said: “I think Arsenal still play the best football in England. They play in a style in the way that most emulates what we do at Barcelona - and what is in our opinion the right way to approach the game.

Kompany was no doubt at fault for the goal. Though, he had an excellent game.

Demichellis was no doubt the villain du jour. I keep seeing people opine he was having 'a very good game'? I must have been watching another game.

bit pretentious if you ask me..

but as he's castillian i'll let him off

I tend to agree, IOAG.

But at the same time, anything the guy did wrong all night was going to be used against him- in order for Pel to get away with his selection he had to be a 9/10, whereas people like Toure can be a 4/10 and still get praise...

I just don't get what Pel sees in Demichelis. I know he wants defenders to play out from the back but Demichelis is actually woeful, is Nastajic injured?

Nastasic (why did I think it was spelt with a j)

I am sick to the buckteeth of this pretentious nonsense that Xavi, Iniesta and Alves churn out about the ' right way to approach the game'.

It is fanciful nonsense. I sincerely hope Bayern meets them again and smash them to smithereens with 'their right way'.

We must have been RC, I didn't see him misplacing passes any more than anyone else and thought he was pretty sober and calculated up until the red. Kompany was excellent , especially once City were down to 10 men, but the way Messi caught him square was schoolboy stuff, the sort of thing 'cráp Liga defenders' get lambasted for every week.

It's their opinion of what's the right way of football, which most football fans agree on.

Some agree the right way was what City showed tonight, someone like Moysie for example

I appreciate good football as much as anyone, but Barcelona have a condescending attitude to the rest of football if I'm honest- they are the self appointed experts on everything at the moment. They seem so strict about playing the right way, then surely they do not need to play act (not saying they did tonight, but historically they have) for marginal decisions...surely their beautiful football means they don't need to dive about to get players booked?

Agreed, ioag.

I don't get these comments about Arsenal. They play nothing like Barca.

City and Liverpool play more like Barca than they do.

Just because they like to have possession doesn't mean they play the best football.

I agree.

Arsenal's football is nowhere near what it was in even their 2007/08 season for example.

Perhaps they are basing it on the last time they played Arsenal and aren't acknowledging how they have changed since the last time the sides met.

As far as i am concerned, as long as teams don't cheat, there is no right way.

Catenaccio is a lesson in defence. Ticqui-taca is a lesson in ball possession. Devastating wing play, total football etc are all lessons etc

There is no right way. Sure one can marvel or prefer one way over another as is their prerogative.

But Barca's pontification on what is the right way is arrogant and nonsensical and very disrespectful towards their opponents.

Dan, personally I 'the right way' thing has become very overused. I'm the first who's paid them the highest praise in the past, even as a Madrid fan - and you know that - but imo the right way is when there's real beauty to how you play, and a lot of the beauty has been drained of Barça's game over the past 2 or 3 years in exchange for a much more 'mechanical' game. Sorry, that's how I see it.

TRC.....i agree 100% with this post, you wise sage

Agree, TRC.

ioag, simple.. every team has their right way of football, nothing wrong with that, as long as their fans are happy.

For team blaugrana it's important not just to win but to play a great passing football with lots of possesion.

Such Barca delusion even reared its head last season after Bayern matches.

Xavi - who should no better - opined , '“We enjoyed the bulk of the possession against Bayern, they couldn't control the game. To look only at the result doesn't really tell the whole story."

I spat out my muesli when i read that remark and had it seared on my grey matter. It really is very silly.

Yeah Xavi was talking complete ballacks there.

Bayern completely controlled that game.

Cesc, Iniesta and Xavi need to start every big game, technically superb, Busquets was the best of them all though

Dan I fully understand the principle, it's just that Barça don't play with the sort of verve and passion that distinguished the early Pep era and the enamoured fans all around the world. Their defensive frailty has led them to overemphasize possession as their form of defence, to the extent that a great deal of their possession isn't even aimed at opening up the opposition but clearly at preventing them from attacking. It's just not that exciting or beautiful any more.

As for every team having it's 'right way'...I wish

That I agree on, we aren't as dangerous with our possesion as few years back, but I think we are being quite underrestimate by many here (mostly because the level has been raised by so much) unless for the bookiers, they keep on seeing us as favs in every competition year after year

You had the right way under Mourinho, don't remember when I saw Bernabeu so happy and joyful