Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini felt Mario Mandzukic’s decisive goal might have been disallowed after his team suffered a 1-0 Champions League loss to Juventus on Wednesday.
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Since the 2011-12 season, when City qualified for the Champions League for the first time, they have been knocked out twice in the group stages and have been eliminated in the last 16 by Spanish side Barcelona in the previous two seasons.
Jesus Navas will hope for a favour from former club Sevilla to help Manchester City through to the Champions League last 16 as group winners. The Argentine, who found the net with a customary finish, was not risked for the final half hour despite City chasing the game, a decision which highlights the importance of him staying fit. It was a good opportunity for us but we will see what Juve will do against Sevilla.
Hart later described the injury as “nothing – a little bit tight” but City are going to have to wait until they return home to learn the full extent of the issue.
Pellegrini says it was an outlier and the team will bounce back.
City will feel that they did enough to earn at least a point from the match after creating plenty of chances, but they lacked a real cutting edge in the final third.
Having won the ball back for the first goal, it was now Coutinho’s turn to get on the scoresheet. We had the first chance from Fernandinho but we didn’t do it. After that we managed not to go for the game in an unbalanced team, we continued trying to dominate the game. We have so many players injured and it’s very hard for the players to continue at the same pace’.
City’s goalkeeper Joe Hart had to be substituted with a hamstring problem during the match but the seriousness of the injury will not be known until later on today. Both goalkeepers were in fine form and produced some outstanding saves, although Joe Hart could not finish the 90 minutes after he sustained an injury.
“We had the personality to play the same way we do at home and I think that is very important in Europe, he added”.
But with just eight minutes left in the fixture, Hart was forced off with a suspected hamstring problem after a save to deny Alvaro Morata.
But the end result was one we all wanted.
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“But he must start in this game because we don’t have Bony and it is important for the team to have Sergio”.
