Manuel Pellegrini: 'The better team won'

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has conceded that the better team won their Champions League last-16 tie with Barcelona.

The Citizens went into tonight's second leg at the Camp Nou looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit, but Ivan Rakitic's first-half strike proved enough for the Spanish outfit to book their place in the quarter-finals.

Barca squandered a host of chances to make things even more comfortable over both legs, but Pellegrini was also left rueing a Sergio Aguero penalty miss that would have put his side within one goal of extra time this evening.

"I think we lost against a better team without doubt. Lionel Messi is very difficult to contain," Pellegrini is quoted as saying by BBC Sport.

"Maybe we didn't play so well in the first half but we improved in the second and we took risks.

"We needed to score two goals and we thought it might happen had we scored the penalty. That was a very important moment because we had 15 minutes more to play."

Joe Hart, who made a string of saves to keep his side in the tie over the two legs, also praised Barcelona for their performance after the match.