Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart insists the Blues will enter next week’s Champions League clash with Barcelona in a positive frame of mind.
The Catalans overturned City 2-1 in the first leg of their Last 16 meeting two weeks ago and many have already written off Manuel Pellegrini’s team and their chances at the Camp Nou.
However, England international Hart, whose last-minute penalty save from Lionel Messi kept his team in the tie, believes Schalke’s performance against Real Madrid on Wednesday gives the Premier League outfit cause for optimism.
“We go there one goal down and we’ll take all the positives with us that we can,” he told the Manchester Evening News.
“Even watching Schalke go to Real Madrid 2-0 down and doing what they did can help you, so there’s no point in taking any negatives to Barcelona.
“We aim to be positive, win the game and progress in the tournament.”
Hart says that the players and boss Pellegrini have already analysed what went wrong in the opening 45 minutes at the Etihad Stadium, where Luis Suarez gave the Blaugrana a two-goal advantage at the break.
“We’ve addressed that. You are playing a top team and they didn’t have particularly big chances to go 2-0 up. Suarez scored with a snap-shot from a crazy angle and somehow drove in to get his foot there for the second.
“That’s the opposition you are playing against. It’s not about playing with fear or underestimating yourselves because it’s just how the game goes sometimes.”
The 27-year-old also feels City can derive inspiration from last season’s performances against Barca, when the Blues lost 2-0 at home but took the game to them in Spain before eventually succumbing to a 4-1 aggregate defeat.
“Last year we really went into it well. Barca will be fully aware of that and as much as people think it will be a surprise if we play well, it won’t surprise them.
“They’ll be expecting a really, really tough game and we aim to give them one,” said a defiant Hart.
