Can Manchester City eliminate Barcelona?

Vincent Kompany believes his side are ready for Barca

Man City captain Vincent Kompany has issued a rallying cry ahead of the Champions League last-16 showdown with Barcelona on Tuesday.

The Belgian insists City do not fear the Spanish giants and are in fact relishing the chance to prove they have learned from their elimination by the same opposition at this stage last season.

City boss Manuel Pellegrini has promised his team will go after Barcelona at the Etihad Stadium and look to take a lead to the Nou Camp. So can City stop Barcelona making it eight straight quarter-final appearances?

A year ago City found themselves completely undone having lost the first leg 2-0 on home soil.

Martin Demichelis conceded a rash penalty, allowing Barcelona take the lead, and when Dani Alves scored in stoppage time the tie was all but over.

A week ago the odds looked to be heavily stacked in Barca's favour once more.

The Catalans went into the weekend having won 11 games on the trot while City were suffering without the services of ex-Barcelona man Yaya Toure - winning just once in five games while Toure was helping Ivory Coast to African Cup of Nations success.

The waters have become a little more muddied in the last few days.

Barcelona slumped to a shock home defeat against Malaga while City hit the high notes in crushing Newcastle to reignite the defence of their Premier League title.

It means that Kompany and his team-mates are looking towards Tuesday's game with perhaps more optimism than was the case prior to the weekend's action.

Is that optimism justified?

There mere presence of Manchester City at this stage is something of a miracle. Two points from their opening four group games looked set to consign Pellegrini's team to another grim failure on Europe's grandest stage.

Bayern Munich rolled into the Etihad in late November with top spot in Group E secured.

Pep Guardiola elected to rest Mario Gotze, Thomas Muller and Bastian Schweinsteiger while his makeshift side were reduced to 10 men after 20 minutes.

Still City trailed with five minutes left before Sergio Aguero intervened to keep their hopes alive with a fortunate 3-2 win.

City duly took care of a Roma side that recorded its only victory in six games at home to CSKA Moscow and conceded seven goals at home to Bayern.

It is not inspiring European form as they prepare to try and curtail Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Perhaps more worrying is Pellegrini's assertion that City will "from the beginning... try to be aggressive and score goals" on Tuesday.

Such a cavalier attitude would surely play into the hands of Barcelona as they attempt to make history in reaching the quarter-finals for an eighth successive season.

With the likes of Aguero, Toure and David Silva in form, perhaps Kompany is right to suggest City have no inferiority complex when it comes to this tie against European royalty.

Their poor Champions League record, however, cries out that City will be outclassed by Barcelona over two legs.

That, together with any potential gung-ho attitude in the first leg, is reason enough to fear for City.