Barcelona’s settled line-up hoping to bounce back against Manchester City

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A home defeat to Málaga derailed an 11-match winning streak but Barça’s attacking trident has usually been hitting its stride to devastating effect and now looks forward to taking on City in the Champions League

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At the end of Barcelona’s match with Málaga on Saturday afternoon, the club’s president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, insisted: “Now we have to think about Manchester City.” It was tempting to conclude that they already were. The intensity and attitude that had defined them over the last six weeks, and of which Leo Messi had been speaking just two days before, had gone. Instead, there was a glimpse of the failings Barcelona thought they had left behind and a first defeat in 12 games.

The day was set up as the day that Europe’s most on-form team would climb to the top of the league table and Leo Messi would overtake Cristiano Ronaldo as the continent’s top scorer, ready to head to Manchester and take a decisive Champions League lead at the Etihad. Yet it ended with a team that had been averaging almost four goals a game unable to manage four shots on target. You wondered if it had ended with Manuel Pellegrini on the phone to his former club, too.