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Man City can't take false hope from Barcelona's La Liga struggles, says Joe Hart
JOE HART is not banking on Barcelona's poor league form to carry over to the Champions League when Manchester City take on the Spaniards looking to overturn a 2-0 deficit from the first-leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Wednesday.
Barcelona have lost their last two La Liga games, including losing to low-lying Valladolid on Saturday.
The result leaves the Catalan club in third place in the league, four points behind fierce rivals Real Madrid.
But Hart thinks City will face a very different team at the Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.
He said: "Does their form have a direct bearing? It does and it doesn't but we understand what big games do to Barcelona.
"They've been in the latter stages of the Champions League many times before while we are relatively new to it.
"I don't think we can read too much into their league form away from home against the lesser sides in La Liga, especially as they are at the Nou Camp against a British side with a place in the quarter-finals at stake."
City will be looking to bounce back from their own domestic trials after being knocked out of the FA Cup by Championship side Wigan on Sunday.
Hart added: "To win four trophies was always going to be hard, but when you break it down, we can win every game we go into so it was a massive disappointment for us, but we can't ignore that Wigan played well.
"I think the lads who played would be the first to admit we didn't achieve our normal standards in the first half in terms of the energy and tempo we like to play at, especially in front of a sell-out Etihad crowd.
"There are no excuses but we have to learn from it and move forward, hopefully starting against Barcelona."