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Pellegrini: Manchester City were the better side against Juventus

Kompany was involved in what threatened to be City’s victor as he pressured Giorgio Chiellini into an own goal, before Mario Mandzukic and Alvaro Morata scored in the Serie A champions’ fightback.

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It was a first setback of the season for Manuel Pellegrini’s City, whose home form has bedevilled them in their unsuccessful attempts to progress beyond this tournament’s last 16 in the last four seasons.

“The Italian team played very well, defended very well and I think they’ve been lucky”.

“I expect that when we have chances, we must score”, said Pellegrini, whose side went into the Group D game after five straight wins in the Premier League. “In December we will see who is winning the title race as I believe this will give a strong indication to what will happen at the end”.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini admitted his side needed to be more clinical but did not blame Sterling for spurning two of the better opportunities.

“We just missed a lot today, we had a couple of chances and what we have to do is learn from Europe and try to do better next time“.

“When I arrived here the team had never been in the Champions League and now we’re expected to win it, or at least challenge strongly”.

He was afforded two attempts on goal from range and though neither were on target and thus didn’t trouble Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, they were still respectable efforts.

“OK, we came up against the best team in the world, which made it a little bit easier to understand, but that’s not what we want“.

The Argentina striker, 27, sat out training on Monday after sustaining a kick to the knee from Scott Dann during City’s 1-0 win at Crystal Palace on Saturday that forced him to come off in the 24th minute.

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany has moved to ease fears about the calf injury he suffered in the Champions League game against Juventus on Tuesday.

City responded by throwing on De Bruyne for his Champions League debut and bringing on Nicolas Otamendi for Kompany, who appeared to pick up a thigh injury. “But I feel this campaign is different to the previous one“.

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The French global reckons City got what they deserved and need to improve their focus and concentration in order to succeed at the highest level.

Juventus