A lone goal from Ivan Rakitic gave the home side a 1-0 victory to see them through to the quarterfinals for the eighth straight time and the second straight time against Manchester City, who were the remaining English side in the compeititon coming into this match.
It was a spectacular night for both goalkeepers as Joe Hart and Marc Andre Ter Stegen pulled off a number of fantastic saves. It was Hart, however, that was tested first. In the 9th minute, Neymar is released on the edge of the penalty area and attempted to side a great finish past the English goalkeeper only for his shot to go directly off the left-hand upright, before spinning wide of the opposite post. Lionel Messi then had a chance some 5 minutes later as his shot was denied by the Englishman at his near post.
The home side did draw first blood, however, in the 31st minute. Messi picked out the former Sevilla man Ivan Rakitic with a brilliant cross, allowing the Croatian to lift a back-post finish over the advancing Hart and into the back of the net to give the lead and 3-1 advantage to the hosts. Barcelona almost doubled their lead from Luis Suarez when in the last minute before halftime, the Uruguayan striker was able to go center and free into open face, however his lifted finish is just past the head of Joe Hart and outside of the right-hand post. Moments later though, Yaya Toure blasted an awful strike high and wide of Ter Stegen's net.
In the second half in around the 63rd minute, Suarez was unable to finish following a fed ball from Messi as his ball rippled the side netting. Moments later, Neymar streaked down the left, before picking out Messi himself, but the Argentine forward is psyched out by Hart at the near post for a fantastic save.
Barcelona were then ruled for offside in 8 minutes later after Jordi Alba's shot onto goal was called out by the linesman. A lifeline was given to Manchester City in the 77th minute, as they awarded a penalty following a challenge by Javier Mascherano and Gerard Pique to Sergio Aguero into the box. When the Argentine striker took his spot kick to level the match up, Ter Stegen was able to leap low to his right-hand side, pushing the shot from Aguero away to continue on his clean sheet and eventually give the result to the Blaugrana to qualify for the quarterfinals.
With this result, Barcelona will now look forward to a possible league-defining match in El Clasico against Real Madrid at home, while City host West Brom in the Premier League, as they look to win their first match following back to back defeats to Burnley and Barcelona. But not before the Champions League quarterfinal draw for the remaining 7 sides in the tournament which will be on Friday, which also will not include the Brazilian full-back Dani Alves who with his booking in the match sees him suspended for the first leg.