LONDON: Luis Suarez returned to haunt Manchester City by scoring twice in Barcelona’s 2-1 win while Juventus settled for a victory by the same score-line over Borussia Dortmund in the first legs of their Champions League last-16 ties on Tuesday.

Suarez was a thorn in City’s side last season, scoring 31 goals as Liverpool pushed City all the way in the Premier League title race, and he finally emerged from Lionel Messi’s shadow at Barca to put the Spanish club within sight of the quarter-finals for an eighth straight year.

Suarez has found goals harder to come by since moving from Liverpool last summer, but he rediscovered his scoring touch on his return to England with a first-half brace to set Barca on the way to a repeat of their 4-1 aggregate win over the same opponents from this time last year.

Barca were too slick for the hosts in a mesmerising opening period at the Etihad with Uruguay forward Suarez firing them in front in the 16th minute and doubling the lead after half an hour with opportunist strikes.

City improved considerably after the break, with Sergio Aguero reducing the deficit with a clinical strike 20 minutes from time to give Manuel Pellegrini’s team something to build on in the second leg on March 18.

But the home side lost defender Gael Clichy to a red card and were thankful for Joe Hart’s last-minute penalty save from Messi following a foul by Pablo Zabaleta on the majestic Argentine.

TURIN (Italy): Juventus’ Alvaro Morata (L) scores during the Champions League match against Borussia Dortmund at the Juventus Stadium.—AFP

With the goal at his mercy, Messi headed the rebound wide to give City renewed hope heading into the second leg at the Nou Camp. “If they lost the game 3-1, that is really difficult for [City],” Suarez said. “But 2-1 is a good result for them.”

Barca coach Luis Enrique said: “We are very happy with the result and even if it was 3-1 the tie would still be open.”

Juve overcame a blunder by defender Giorgio Chiellini and a first-half injury to playmaker Andrea Pirlo to beat Dortmund in a fast and furious clash in Turin but their narrow victory leaves it all to play for in the return fixture in Germany.

Carlos Tevez tapped in from close range to give the Serie A champions a 13th-minute lead, only for Chiellini’s nightmare moment to let Marco Reus in for a clinically-taken equaliser five minutes later.

The Italy defender slipped and fell over as he went to make a simple interception, lost the ball to Reus and did not even try to get up, instead remaining sprawled on the turf as the Dortmund player planted the ball past Gianluigi Buffon.

In a passionate atmosphere, Juve suffered another blow when Pirlo went off injured just after the half hour but a superbly-taken goal just before half-time by Alvaro Morata, who had set up the opener, left the tie on a knife-edge.

“It was my best match since joining Juventus,” said Morata, a summer signing from Real Madrid. “The many games I’ve played in in Serie A have taught me a lot, I’ve grown.”

In their first meeting since Dortmund’s 3-1 win in the 1997 Champions League final, both teams pressed relentlessly however Massimiliano Allegri’s hosts were left lamenting a stack of missed chances and conceding an away goal that could prove costly heading towards the decisive second leg.

“We’re happy we won at home, and we did that by putting in a solid display,” said Allegri. “But I’m sorry we didn’t put more goals away from the chances we created. It will be a difficult return match but I think we can still do well.”

Published in Dawn February 26th , 2015

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