Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini insists his side will try to keep the ball off Barcelona in Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 clash.
The Premier League champions were unsuccessful against Barcelona last season in the Champions League over two legs and the Chilean coach hopes his side will change their style to suit the La Liga side on Tuesday night.
“At this stage of the competition when you play over 180 minutes it is very important to win the first game. After that, try not to concede goals here at home. If you can’t draw, 0-0 is better than 1-1,” said Pellegrini at his pre-match press conference.
“It’s important to try to win here. But our team is also demonstrating we are playing better away than we did last year.
“I don’t think that last year we changed our style. Maybe we couldn’t do what we tried to do. As I say, we had played 19 games in two months. So we tried to play another way.
“The main thing for our team is to try to fight for the possession of the ball, that’s very important. We need to have the ball as long as we can. After that, give good distribution to take Barcelona as near to their box as we can.”