Four-time Champions League winners Barcelona and French champions Paris Saint Germain suffered few problems in reaching the quarter-finals of this season's competition on Wednesday. Barcelona - who had come into their game on the back of some poor league form - beat Manchester City, who had Pablo Zabaleta sent off, 2-1 for a 4-1 aggregate victory.
While Barcelona's win saw them join domestic rivals Atletico Madrid in the last eight, City became the second English side in two nights to bow out, Arsenal having exited on Tuesday. Lionel Messi opened the scoring for Barca with his eighth Champions League goal of the campaign before Vincent Kompany levelled just before the final whistle.
But there was still time for Dani Alves to strike the winner as Barcelona qualified for the quarter-finals for the seventh successive season. While victory will ease the pressure on Barcelona boss Gerardo Martino, defeat for City will increase demands for manager Manuel Pelligrini to deliver the Premier League title, as this latest setback came four days after they were knocked out of the domestic FA Cup by second tier Wigan.
Barcelona forward Cesc Fabregas said that while others might be saying Barcelona were a shadow of previous sides, they were quite happy with how things were going. "Everything is good, it's not that bad," said the former Arsenal star. "We're in the final of the Cup against Real, we're four points behind in the league.
"To be the Barcelona of two, three, four years ago is very difficult because they were probably the best team in the history of football. "It's very difficult to maintain this level but we don't have to be the best (ever), we just try to stay at the top of our game." For Kompany there was a serious sense of injustice especially Zabaleta's dismissal for a second bookable offence when he objected to the referee failing to give a penalty.
"Going for the second time down to 10 men (Martin Demichelis was sent off in the first leg) when it was a clear penalty, it's not easy conditions to come and play against such a good team. "Over the course of the two games, whenever we were with 11 players there wasn't much between the two teams." PSG, who Barcelona beat in last season's quarter-finals, kept alive their hopes of becoming only the second French side to win the trophy - after Marseille in 1993 - with a 2-1 win over German outfit Bayer Leverkusen for a 6-1 aggregate win. Goals by Marquinhos and Ezequiel Lavezzi cancelled out Sidney Sam's sixth minute opener to give Laurent Blanc's side their sixth successive win in all competitions.
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