Manchester City can secure the first place in Group D, if they beat Juventus today.
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Fernandinho was presented with a flawless opening early on, but the Brazilian ace blazed his effort well over the bar when he should have done better to leave Gianluigi Buffon breathing a sigh of relief. I am not unhappy the way we played.
“It’s never easy to win a Champions League game”.
To finish top City will need to beat Borussia Monchengladbach in their final match at the Etihad Stadium in a fortnight while hoping Sevilla can overcome the Italians. “Sevilla have to win that game to try to qualify for the Europa League”, said Pellegrini. That is a hard game and the group is not finished. Another de Bruyne cross was bundled out to the edge of the area, and following Yaya Toure’s lay-off, the Brazilian blasted high and wide.
Of course, there was less riding on this game because City were already through, but Pellegrini’s side showed little to suggest that they will be able revive the English Champions League challenge.
With the funds at their disposal it’s nearly criminal that Manchester City would travel to such a crucial fixture with a drastic shortage of options up front.
“We’ll see, maybe he has a problem with his hamstring”, Pellegrini said.
“In the first half and second half we had chances to draw, but we have to bounce back in the next game that is coming”.
After successive defeats to Barcelona in the last 16 in the past two years, that was a prospect City wanted to avoid this time but their fate is now out of their hands.
Sergio Aguero who was substituted in the second half by Raheem Sterling pounced on a faulty pass in the dying minutes of the match but failed to score.
Juve took the lead through a simple tap-in off the boot of Mario Mandzukic in the 18th minute. “We missed quite a lot of injured players, but we have to deal with that, we have a fantastic squad”.
Given that City have already guaranteed qualification from Group D into the knockout stages of the Champions League, the sensible decision would conceivably be to give him the night off. AFP/Getty Images Juventus’ midfielder from France Paul Pogba (L) vies with Manchester City’s Argentinian defender Martin Demichelis during the UEFA Champions League football match Juventus vs Manchester City on November 25, 2015 at the Juventus Stadium in Turin.
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“Kevin is a player that fortunately for us played one year here”, Pellegrini said, referring to the Belgian’s previous spell at Chelsea.
