Edin Dzeko has pointed to the relentless nature of the Premier League as part of the reason for Manchester City 's continuing problems in Europe . Manuel Pellegrini 's side trail Barcelona 2-1 ahead of their Champions League last 16 return leg at the Nou Camp with a quarter final place looking beyond them for a fourth consecutive season . The Bosnia international believes the ultra-competitive domestic campaign has left players from English clubs feeling fatigued before playing European fixtures . Edin Dzeko believes English players are left exhausted by hard fought games in the Premier League . The Bosnia international could n't find the net in City 's shock 1-0 defeat by Burnley on Saturday . 'In all the other leagues , there is too big a gap between the top teams and the others - there are one , two , maybe three teams fighting for the title , ' he told Goal.com . 'In England there are six or seven teams that can become champions and , as well , teams from the bottom can beat the top teams . 'That is one of the reasons why English teams sometime fail in Europe . With the Premier League as the strongest league in the world , every match is hard . Luis Suarez returned to England to score both goals in Barcelona 's 2-1 defeat of Manchester City . City 's Champions League hopes would be practically over had Joe Hart not saved Lionel Messi 's late penalty . 'You can not rest players , you always have to play full strength , while opponents in Europe can sometime rest some players in their domestic leagues . 'The first leg against Barcelona was very important , ' the forward added . 'We tried not to lose at home but we were not good , especially in the first half . In the second half , we played better , scored , had a few chances to score more and who knows what would have happened if we did n't receive the red card ? 'Now we want to surprise Barcelona . It will be tight until the end ; we want to play much better than in the first leg and we will see if it will be enough to progress . ' Dzeko faces competition for a starting role at the Nou Camp from new signing Wilfried Bony .
Manchester City face Barcelona in Premier League last 16 decider . Edin Dzeko believes fighting for every game in Champions League leaves players exhausted for Europe . The Bosnia international is hoping to pull a surprise at the Nou Camp .