Luis Suarez's double gives Barcelona commanding advantage over Manchester City

Shades of last season's round-of-16 meeting between Manchester City and Barcelona were on display Tuesday as the Catalan club overwhelmed Manuel Pellegrini's side at the Etihad Stadium and emerged with a 2-1 win that placed them within 90 minutes of reaching the quarterfinals of the Champions League.

Here's what you need to know:

• Some 1,100 Barcelona supporters made the journey to the Etihad Stadium.
• Manuel Pellegrini opted to deploy Martin Demichelis as Vincent Kompany's centre-back partner in a move that surely triggered flashbacks of the Argentine defender's red card from last season's round-of-16 clash between the two clubs.
• Pellegrini also unveiled an uncharacteristic 4-4-2 formation that proved to be inefficient against Barcelona's 4-3-3 throughout the fixture.
• Sir Alex Ferguson was in attendance for the match.

• Manchester City 0, Barcelona 1: After an opening quarter-hour where both sides failed to generate any clear opportunities, it was Luis Suarez who opened the scoring in his first return to the United Kingdom since leaving Liverpool for Barcelona. The goal was the result of some sketchy defending on City's end, as Vincent Kompany failed to properly contain a cross from Lionel Messi before Joe Hart curiously chose against cutting down the angle when the ball fell to Suarez's feet at the edge of the six-yard box.
• Manchester City 0, Barcelona 2: Following even more pressure from Barcelona, Suarez doubled the Catalan club's lead in the 30th minute. And yet again, the goal was the result of atrocious defending from City, as Messi drew five opponents toward him before laying off a pass to Jordi Alba, who sent in a low cross that Suarez merely needed to tap in. Don't be surprised if the Uruguayan No. 9 forces Hart into early retirement.

• City came out of the interval looking more deadly in attack and were unlucky to not cut Barcelona's lead in half in the 49th minute, when Edin Dzeko was left unmarked in front of goal but headed his shot directly at a static Marc-Andre ter Stegen.
• Manchester City 1, Barcelona 2: After absorbing more relentless pressure, City finally found the back of the net in the 69th minute, when Fernandinho played a pass to David Silva, whose first touch allowed Sergio Aguero to run onto the ball and cut Barcelona's lead in half. Note that Fernandinho had only been on the pitch for five minutes before the goal.

• Any chance of City finding an equalizer was essentially gone in the 74th minute when Gael Clichy, who had already received a yellow card that had him set to miss the second leg, brought down Dani Alves while going in for a challenge.

• Wild scenes consumed second-half injury time as Barcelona were awarded a penalty in the 93rd minute when Pablo Zabaleta fouled Messi inside the 18-yard box. However, just as he's done against an English club in the past, Messi blew the opportunity to really put the tie out of reach and saw his penalty saved by a diving Hart before heading an easy rebound wide of goal.

• It shouldn't come as any surprise that Barcelona finished the match with 62 percent of possession.

• The second leg of the tie goes on March 18 at the Camp Nou, where City will need at least two goals to have any chance of progressing.