• Champions League

Barcelona clash was 'too big' for City - Nasri

Samir Nasri has admitted Manchester City were overwhelmed by their last encounter with Barcelona after showing the Spanish giants too much respect.

City meet Barcelona again in the last 16 of this season's Champions League and Nasri thinks they are ready for the task of claiming victory over the Catalan club now.

Manuel Pellegrini's team lost 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium and 2-1 at the Nou Camp 12 months ago and, although they scored more than 100 goals in the Premier League, were unusually cautious in their clashes with the four-times champions of Europe.

City played left-back Aleksandar Kolarov in midfield, only started with one striker and had just three shots on target in the home game.

Nasri has claimed City have learned from that chastening experience, insisting the squad is capable of advancing to the quarter-finals for the first time in their history..

"I think we respect them too much but we weren't experienced to compete with a club like this," Nasri said. "They know how to win a Champions League. I think it was too much of a big game. We were not ready. This year is totally different. We know what we are capable of."

Nasri denied the rematch is about revenge and thinks City are better equipped to progress now.

"We want to beat Barcelona because we want to go as far as possible in the Champions League, not because we want revenge," he added. "For us, it is a different game. We are a better team than last year. We had a couple of players injured [then]. Everything will be different. We have more experience than last year."

Manager Pellegrini, who has pledged to be positive on Tuesday, denied City went on the defensive against Barcelona last year.

"I don't think last year we changed our style," he explained. "Maybe we couldn't do what we tried to do. We always try to attack and we couldn't do it in that game."

Nasri believes City need a defining win in the Champions League to rewrite their history and make their fans converts to the competition.

They have never reached the quarter-finals of Europe's premier club competition and have struggled to sell all their tickets at the Etihad Stadium for some Champions League games.

In contrast, they have been champions of England twice in the last three seasons and Nasri said: "We have a lot of success in the Premier League so the fans are really passionate about that. We need to create our history in the Champions League to have a special relationship with the fans."

Nasri said it would be pretentious to compare himself with Xavi and Andres Iniesta and believes Lionel Messi is on "another galaxy" from him.

He added: "I think Messi and Ronaldo play in their own galaxy. They compete with each other. The rest, [like Luis] Suarez and Neymar are on the same level as Sergio. When he is fit, Sergio can lift the team and score goals."

Nasri nominated Iniesta, the scorer of the 2010 World Cup final winner, as his favourite member of Barcelona's passing contingent.

"Xavi and Iniesta were the best midfield in the world for six or seven years," he said. "I like the way they play. I prefer Iniesta to Xavi because Xavi keeps the ball better but Iniesta can do more things. It is too pretentious to compare myself to them.

"I think every single player wants to play this kind of game. Barcelona is a massive club with a great philosophy of football. It is in their tradition. It can be fun to play your game to dictate the game but if you give them the ball it is not fun."

Manager Manuel Pellegrini confirmed that James Milner, who missed Saturday's win over Newcastle, with a knee problem, is fully fit now.

Samir Nasri hopes to turn some of Manchester City's domestic success into European glory © Getty Images

Enlarge

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd