Hart hopes Barca win Champions League

Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart hopes Barcelona win the UEFA Champions League, but he has no doubt Europe’s best two teams have reached the final.

Barca and Juventus do battle at the Olympiastadion in Berlin on Saturday, with City having been eliminated by the La Liga champions in the round of 16.

City have been criticised for their failures in the Champions League, having failed to get beyond the last 16 in four consecutive seasons.

Hart said he wanted Barca to go on and win their fifth European crown.

“I hope they win the Champions League, and a lot of it will be down to [Lionel] Messi,” the England international told The Mirror.

“We got beat quite comfortably over the two legs, it is fair to say. We battled hard to get to through the group stage and we didn’t really get to our full level.

“We did, maybe, in the second half of the first leg at the Etihad – if we did that for the other three-quarters of the tie, we would have given ourselves a chance but it is difficult at the top, top level.

“Juventus have done fantastically, these are the two top teams at the moment – we have got a long way to go but we are willing to work hard, we are a good club with great owners and the players want to do it in Europe as well.”

Hart enjoyed an incredible second leg against Barca, making numerous saves in his team’s 1-0 loss – which led to a 3-1 aggregate defeat.

But he enjoyed his diving save to deny Federico Fernandez in City’s 4-2 win over Swansea in May more.

“It was a busy, busy night and from the perspective of a young guy who loves football – the Camp Nou, against the best players in the world, it was a really exciting,” Hart said of the Barca clash.

“But I enjoyed the save at Swansea more because we got the victory.

“Messi was magical in both legs against us. Every time he touched the ball, something was going to happen.

“Watching him since Christmas, when Barca have kicked on, the only way to stop him, it seems, is with five or six players – and as he attracts those players, he sees a pass to someone else and they’ll score.”