Alanna Kennedy has endured another night of torment and Mary Fowler cut a largely peripheral figure as Barcelona handed the Matildas' English hopefuls Manchester City a lesson with a 3-0 triumph in the Women's Champions League.
Manchester City manager Gareth Taylor described his patched-up side as "a little bit dysfunctional" and it showed, as goals to Claudia Pina and Barcelona's two Ballon d'Or winners, Aitor Bonmati and Alexia Putellas handed City a heavy defeat in front of 29,007 in Barcelona's Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys.
"This game won't define us. We'll learn, get better, get players back, start to get stronger and will improve," Taylor said after the match.
"We were a little bit dysfunctional with and without the ball tonight, but the effort from the girls was first class."
Kennedy, who sported a whopping black eye, had been hooked at half-time during City's home loss at Everton in the Women's Super League three days earlier, again looked at sea at the back as City's defence got run ragged by the defending European champions.
On the BBC's online player rating tool, Kennedy was handed a score of only 4.21 out of 10.
The only player rated worse than her was Matildas teammate Fowler, whose poor display earned her 4.17 out of 10.
It could have been much worse for the Women's Super League challengers, as Barcelona rained in 30 shots to three in a hugely one-sided contest at the Olympic Stadium, which made City's win in the reverse fixture back in Manchester at the start of October feel an awfully long time ago.
Struggling with injury absences and without star striker Khadija Shaw, it proved a long night for City, who had to avoid a two-goal defeat to finish top of Group D ahead of the champs.
But they never looked likely to keep the hosts at bay, with playmaker Bonmati running the show and winning the player of the match award the night after picking up her latest award as the 'FIFA Best' women's player.
City's defence had looked like an accident waiting to happen as Kennedy gave the ball away three times before her failure to clear the ball a fourth time gifted the ball straight to Pina, who put Barca ahead just before the break.
City were then guilty of gifting the ball away again in the 57th minute, their sluggish rearguard again being picked off by Bonmati, who raced through and nutmegged busy keeper Khiara Keating with a low left-foot finish.
Putellas, who had won the previous two Women's Ballons d'Or prizes before Bonmati lifted two in a row, then made it 3-0 with a shot from outside the box in the 67th past the unsighted Keating.
Both sides finished on 15 points in their group, but Barca grabbed top spot with a superior goal difference, and both will qualify for March's quarter-finals.
Foord helps Arsenal win a thriller
It was better news for Australia's London-based Matildas, who helped Arsenal win a thrilling 3-2 victory over Bayern Munich at the 4,500-capacity Meadow Park in Borehamwood.
Mariona Caldentey scored a late penalty to hand Arsenal, which had three Matildas in its starting line-up, the win that sends them through to the quarter-finals as group winners.
The match was moved from the larger Emirates Stadium due to a clash with the men's League Cup quarter-final against Crystal Palace, but the humbler surrounds did not detract from a thrilling performance.
The Gunners took an early lead after Matilda Caitlin Foord's inswinging corner was turned into her own net by Glódís Viggósdóttir, but Magdalena Eriksson levelled for the German champions just before the break.
Foord almost created a second own goal from another delicious cross, only for the crossbar to rescue Bayern defender Sarah Zadrazil.
It was Bayern who took the lead though, Eriksson scoring her second of the night after a goalscoring drought for more than 18 months.
However, Alessia Russo banged in the equaliser soon after, before Caldentey's 86th minute spot kick handed the Gunners, who also featured Steph Catley and Kyra Cooney-Cross, all three points.
AAP/ABC
