Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini is extremely anxious about number one goalkeeper Joe Hart, who limped off the field during their 1-0 Champions League defeat to Juventus, according to reports from the Mirror.
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Therefore Juve’s victory not only secured their place in the last 16 but took the Serie A champions ahead of City and into prime position to advance as group winners.
Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri disagreed that his side was fortunate to win after guiding a team into the last-16 for the sixth successive year – including four times with AC Milan.
City are missing defenders Eliaquim Mangala, Pablo Zabaleta and Vincent Kompany, midfielders Samir Nasri and David Silva, and striker Wilfried Bony.
City’s humiliation by Liverpool in their own stadium drew a rare show of public anger from Pellegrini but he said he had stopped analysing that game “on Sunday morning” and Juventus represented a fresh start.
Substitute Álvaro Morata and Marchisio went close for the Old Lady as the match approached the hour mark, while City substitute Fabian Delph fired wide of the top-right corner with a long-range effort on 68 minutes.
If City want to react, they’ll do so without some of their biggest names.
The Citizens travel to the Juventus Stadium for an encounter against the Italians, knowing that a win would help them to ensure top spot in Group D.
“Over the game we had more chances than them but in the end we weren’t clinical”.
Compared with the most regular English representatives in the continent’s premier club tournament, the Sky Blues have the worst loss percentage, and by some distance, with 13 of their 30 games ending in defeat. “We’ve got to look to play 95 minutes, aware that we’re up against one of the strongest sides in Europe”.
“It’s a very hard game that they must play away from home”. We have to deal with that and bounce back in the next game. “Manchester City is a team full of great champions”.
Fernando guided De Bruyne’s left-wing corner towards the bottom corner, where Buffon touched his header onto the base of the post and gathered with Yaya Toure lurking. We definitely need to go to the next level and make it through to the quarter-finals or semis.
We’ve seen this team struggle in the first half of the group stage before and have to essentially dig themselves out of a 15-foot hole because of what they did a month or two earlier.
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“It’s part of football – to win, you have to score goals – but we missed chances and these things can happen”.
