10 WAYS BARCELONA ARE BETTER THAN CITY

By Peter, SoccerTalk

Man.City against Barcelona at the Etihad tonight promises to be a classic match, as two of the continent finest teams go head to head.

So much have been said in the build up, though many considered Barca the favourites however many like Mourinho believes City have a chance against the 'worst Barcelona team' in recent times.

Is Man. City that good and Barcelona that worse?

At Soccertalk therefore we research the stats to see how close Man.City are to Barca or how far ahead are Barca off Man.City, and the result is what we present in this article.

Stats are said to be like a woman's skirts, they give you ideas but hides the most important things.

The stats below, if they ain't hiding anything, gives an idea of who will come out on top when the two legs between the two teams might have been played.

+GOALS
Much has been made of City's firepower, but the stats do suggest it is still Barcelona that has the best firepower in Europe. 69 goals in 24 games gives them a goal per game ratio of 3. City ain't far, 68 in 25 and a 2.72 per game ratio. A marginal difference you may say but could prove important in the long run.

+SHOOTING ACCURACY
Barca has a better shooting accuracy, its 43.8% for Barca and 30% for City.

+CONVERSION RATE
Barca needs fewer shots,on goal to score compared to City. Barca converts 19% of its shots per game, while City converts at 15%.

+OPEN PLAY
Barca has scored 49 goals from open play, thats about 71% of the goals they have scored this season. City has scored 44 goals at a rate of 65%.

+COUNTER ATTACK
Much has been made of City soaking up the pressure against Barca and getting there goals from counter attack, well said, seems the logical thing to do. But actually Man.city are less potent on the counter; they have only score three times from the counter in the league this season, this represents just 4% of the goals they have scored. Barca however are very dangerous this season from the counter, they have scored three times as much from the counter as City, 9. Thats about 13% of the goals they have scored. So beware of Neymar and Alex on the break!

+GOALS CONCEEDED
Much has been said of Barca's fragile defence, hearing such you get the feeling that City has no defensive worries of their own. They do and are far worse at the back than Barca. They have conceeded 27 goals so far while Barca have only conceeded 17. They and Bayern Munich are among the few teams that have conceeded less than 20 goals in Europe.

+TACKLING
They do know not just how to pass the ball but also how to tackle. Pressing requires ability to win balls by tackles or cut the flow of pass by a timely interception, Barca excel in both over Man.City: Its 22 to 20 for tackles and 14 to 12 for interceptions!

+POSSESSION
Xavi said City looks like Barcelona in style now and its the truth. But also true is that City are still a lighter version of Barca. Possesion based City are still way behind Barca as they average

58% as against Barca's 67%.

+PASSING
So its no suprise then that Barca completes more passes than City per game; Barca completes 609 against City's 499!

+THROUGH BALLS
City has Silva to make the through balls, but Barca has Messi, xavi, Iniesta and co. No suprise then that City makes 3 per game while Barca makes twice as much, 6 per game!

Stats supplied by whoscored.