Hart’s late penalty save gives Manchester City some hope

But after being swept aside by a masterful Barca display in the first half, City at least gave themselves hope for the second leg of the last-16 tie as Sergio Aguero produced a brilliant reply.

City were left hanging on in the latter stages, however, after Gael Clichy was sent off for a second cautionable offence and it needed a stoppage-time penalty save from Joe Hart to prevent further damage.

Lionel Messi had looked like giving the Spanish side a 3-1 lead to take back to the Nou Camp after being felled by Pablo Zabaleta, but Hart pushed away his spot-kick and City breathed a sigh of relief.

“I hope our second-half efforts are worth something,” said Hart.

“We’ll go there with a great group of fans, belief and a we’ll have a right go.”

He added: “We regrouped second half, put Barcelona under a lot of pressure, and we were good for a goal and maybe good for a result.”

Hart said of Suarez: “(He’s) a fantastic player. What did they sign him for? £80m? What do you expect?.

“He took his goals well. We controlled them well apart from the two goals.”

Manager Arsene Wenger does not expect an easy ride tonight as Arsenal aim to get past his former club Monaco and secure a place in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in four seasons.

The Gunners found themselves unseeded for the knockout stages, having finished behind Borussia Dortmund in Group D on goal difference, and so could have again faced one of Europe’s major clubs, as they did when coming up against Bayern Munich, who ended their hopes in the past two seasons.

Monaco were viewed as one of the weaker seeds, having scored only four Champions League goals this season, but still qualified as winners of Group C ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.

However, Wenger, who guided the Principality club to the Ligue 1 title in 1987-88 and semi-finals of the Champions League a few seasons later, insists at this level any thoughts of complacency can be fatal. “We have been in the Champions League for 17 consecutive years and that means we would have not learned the lesson – easy is a word that you have to ban in the Champions League,” said Wenger.

“Every time we were in there, it was hard-earned wins. It is always one-goal difference – you go out for one goal, you stay in for one goal and that means you have to work very hard.”

Wenger was sacked by Monaco in 1995 before moving on to Nagoya Grampus in Japan.