Luis Suárez has dismissed suggestions that he tried to bite Manchester City’s Martín Demichelis during Barcelona’s win at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday night

Suárez accused the English media of “making trouble.”

Television footage appeared to show Suárez lunge his face toward Demichelis, but did not show evidence of biting.

“He [Demichelis] put his hand on my throat,” Suárez said.

Suárez referenced scoring two goals against England in the 2014 World Cup.

“I do not understand why they [the English media] want to do this. They want to make trouble for me. They must be hurt after what I did to them in the World Cup but they forget that I played in England and they should show me some respect.”

Suárez was banned for four months by Fifa after sinking his teeth into the shoulder of Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

Suárez now believes he was treated unfairly.

“The way I was treated when I had to leave the World Cup was the worst thing I’ve ever experienced as a player,” he said.

“I’ll never understand it... they treated me worse than a hooligan.”

Manuel Pellegrini defended his decision to select two strikers and only two central midfielders in the first leg of Manchester City's Champions League tie against Barcelona.

City lost 2-1 in a match dominated by Barcelona.

He said in a news conference: "I am very happy with the way we played [in the second half]. It was the way we must play against Barcelona. We demonstrated that in the second half with the same names. It was the way we must play from the first minute."

Pellegrini was critical of his side's defending for Luis Suarez's brace and of their performance for the remainder of the opening 45 minutes.

"We committed a very soft error for the first goal," he said. "Until the first goal, it was a very normal game and after that we conceded an easy goal and played very bad until the first half finished."

English teams had a dominant run against Spanish teams in the knockout stage of the Champions League from 2004 until 2009, but it has swung dramatically the other way ever since.

Between 2004 and April 2009, English teams won nine out of 11 ties.

From April 2009 to date, Spanish teams have won seven of eight ties.

Barcelona and Manchester City face each other for the second straight season in the knockout stage of the Champions League.