Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini admits Spanish giants Barcelona were too good for his side over the two Last 16 legs in the Champions League.
Ivan Rakitic's only goal of the night saw Luis Enrique's men earn a 1-0 win at the Camp Nou, enough to comfortably make it through to the Last 8 of the competition.
"We lost against a better team, without doubt," Pellegrini said.
"It is very difficult to beat Barcelona, especially with Messi.
"We all want to continue in the Champions League, but we need to improve in Europe.
"In the last two years we have improved because we have qualified for the last 16. In both of those years we have played against Barcelona, but in the other years we didn't qualify past the group stage.
"Maybe it was not our best chance to continue in Europe this year because we have important restrictions on the amount of players and amount of money we can spend, so it was a difficult year for our team in that sense.
"But I think if we weren't drawn against Barcelona we might have had a chance to continue."
