Manchester City have missed out on a place in the final of the UEFA Youth League as they suffered a 5-4 loss to Barcelona at the Colovray Stadium on Friday evening.
The Citizens' young guns were attempting to match the success of Chelsea in progressing through their tough semi-final, but they left themselves with too much work to do in the end.
A 35th-minute red card shown to City's Lorenzo Gonzalez swung the contest in the Catalans' favour, eventually edging it by a single goal despite leading 5-2 at the interval.
Carles Perez put Barca ahead in a thrilling opening 45 minutes, but Joel Latibeaudiere hit back for his side to make it 1-1.
City again showed good fighting spirit when Lukas Nmecha cancelled out Alex Collado's free kick within the space of 60 seconds, only for Ricard Puig to restore Barcelona's advantage.
Gonzalez was then dismissed for two yellow-card offences, and the extra man told as Perez bagged his second and Alejandro Marques scored a fifth.
Rabbi Matondo did give City some hope by pulling one back 20 minutes from time but, despite Nmecha adding another late consolation, it was not to be.
Daniel Lewis
