Pep Guardiola claimed Manchester City took the first step to building a Champions League legacy by overcoming the ‘best team in the world’ in a dramatic 3-1 victory over Barcelona.

Having fallen behind to Lionel Messi’s first-half goal, City moved to within one victory of qualification from Group C with two goals from Ilkay Gundogan and a Kevin de Bruyne free-kick.

And former Barcelona coach Guardiola admitted that the significance of the win should not be overlooked by a club still striving to create its own European history.

“For the first 38 minutes we saw the best team in the world,” Guardiola said. “Barcelona changed the centre-backs to make diagonal balls to the full back and if they scored a second, we are in real trouble and the game is done, finished.

“But football is like this. Our goal changed everything for our mood. The players realised the bad moment is over and in the second half we were compact and won balls with the high press.

“Our victory is so important and of course now we have one more game to win to go into February and hopefully in February, it will be good.

“But when one club like Manchester City is 25 years without being in Europe, you don’t have history.

Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Show all 22 1 /22 Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Willy Caballero – 6 out of 10 Couldn’t do anything about the goal but didn’t mess around with the ball when he had it and cleared his lines well. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Pablo Zabaleta – 7 out of 10 Got the crowd up for the game with his performance and watched Neymar well. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Nicolas Otamendi – 7 out of 10 Cut out all the mistakes that have marred his game in his most recent appearances. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings John Stones – 7 out of 10 Looked stretched at points when Barca attacked but did well on the whole. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Aleksandar Kolarov – 7 out of 10 Did little going forward but his main job was to deal with the threat of Messi, which is never easy. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Fernandinho – 7 out of 10 Broke from midfield well to support the attack and barely stopped running. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Raheem Sterling – 8 out of 10 City’s most dangerous player on the night. Should have scored just after half time but was a constant threat. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Kevin De Bruyne – 8 out of 10 Pretty anonymous until his stunning free-kick gave City the lead and was a constant threat in the second 45 minutes. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Ilkay Gündogan – 8 out of 10 Beautifully-timed run for both his two goals, arriving in the right place at the right time – something he is quickly making a habit of doing. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings David Silva – 8 out of 10 Passed through the lines well and won the free-kick cleverly for De Bruyne’s goal. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Sergio Agüero – 8 out of 10 Why didn’t he start at the Nou Camp? Aguero was exceptional as always and never gave Barca a moment to rest. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Marc-Andre ter Stegen – 6 out of 10 His range of passing was inch perfect throughout but could be blamed for his positioning on De Bruyne’s free kick. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Sergi Roberto – 4 out of 10 Played a blind pass to allow City to equalise and almost repeated the mistake in the second half. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Javier Mascherano – 5 out of 10 Was stretched by City’s brilliant attack throughout the entirety of the second half. Getty Images Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Samuel Umtiti – 5 out of 10 Was lucky not to give away a penalty in the first half as Sterling was booked for diving instead. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Lucas Digne – 5 out of 10 Was given a bit of a run around by Sterling but supported Neymar well when attacking. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Ivan Rakitic – 5 out of 10 His metronomic passing was a little awry but a nuisance in his defending as he hustled City’s midfielders. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Sergio Busquets – 5 out of 10 Struggled to stem City’s attack when they broke and was taken on too easily by Aguero at times. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings André Gomes – 5 out of 10 Replaced the injured Iniesta and missed a fantastic chance to equalise when he thumped the ball against the bar. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Lionel Messi – 7 out of 10 His work for the opening goal was genius as he started and finished a sublime counter attack. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Luis Suárez – 6 out of 10 Had a number of chances throughout and should have found the net with at least one of them. Manchester City vs Barcelona player ratings Neymar – 5 out of 10 Did really well for the opening goal but faded as the game went on.

“History means when you face the big teams you are constant to fight against them. We play against us, against our tradition and what we have to do.

“So today is a good step. We play against the best team in the world and compete against them.

City have now won twice in two games after going six games without a victory and Guardiola believes his team are now back on track following their ‘undeserved’ run of poor results.

“Our victory against West Brom was so important after six games without wins,” he said. “We show many good things and I am so happy for the players.

“They didn’t deserve six winless, how they play. Butt today we take back again with some games.

Raheem Sterling celebrates with Ilkay Gundogan after the latter scores City's opener (Getty)

“I am happy we got three points. I learned some things about my players, how we can play on the counter attack and we can use that as a weapon in the future but I am not more happy because we beat them.”

Sergio Aguero’s outstanding performance proved crucial to City’s victory, two weeks after the Argentine was named on the bench in the Nou Camp.

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And Guardiola insisted that the forward’s display proved his importance to City’s future ambitions.

“He played awesome,” he said. “It was one game in Barcelona, one reason why to play that movement with De Bruyne behind the back four.