Prediction - City to beat Barca
Barcelona will definitely be employing their traditional possession-based style of football.
With Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta dictating terms in the middle of the park.
Neymar, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi will be the front runners, trying to outsmart the City defence by finding space between the lines and getting into good scoring positions.
The trio will also be looking to mesmerise the Citizens with their dribbling skills.
Beating the Catalans begins with admitting that you cannot outplay them as they are known for their intricate short-passing game.
The first thing that you have to do is to stop following them around the field, otherwise they will make you look stupid with those passes.
Just outnumber them in your final third and rely on counter to beat them.
That's exactly how Chelsea and Inter Milan got the better of them in the UEFA Champions League.
It has also worked wonders for Real Madrid lately. Just play with two holding midfielders to protect the back-four and start dispossessing in your final third.
The most important thing is for your defensive players to be sort of deep-lying playmakers.
Having a good eye for a long pass is essential to ensure smooth transition.
When they get the ball, they must quickly play it to that attackers who can launch a counter-attack.
The biggest Barcelona weakness was exposed by Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League semi-final and many teams have exploited it. I am referring to their inability to deal with high balls.
Those are the tactics that were used by Netherlands to defeat Spain(which has many Barca players) in last year's world cup.
Manchester United tried to use those both in the 2008/09 and 2010/11 UEFA Champions League finals, but they didn't have much to carry out the strategy. They knew what they had to do, but they did not have key players to do it.
Now, City has enough to plot and execute the Catalans' downfall.
Fernadinho or Fernando can play as holding midfielders to assist at the back.
They both have a good eye for a long pass to pick out Sergio Aguero, Edin Džeko, David Silva or Samir Nasri, who might be the attacking players tonight.
They are very quick and will cause a lot of problems for the Barcelona defence, which has shown signs of being weak at times.
Aleksander Kolarov and Pablo Zabaleta are very quick full-backs and will also charge forward at times to add numbers to the attack.
Vincent Kompany and Eliaquim Mangala or Martín Demichelis have been playing together as centre-backs for a long time and they are solid at the back.
They are also very organised.
The Citizens will be playing at home, for them it's do or die. They know that a bad result might see them kissing their European Cup hopes good-bye.
My prediction: Manchester City will win
The match at Etihad Stadium kicks off at 21h45 South African time.
(File Photo: Gallo Images)
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