But Manchester City will be optimistic about their chances, given that the Sky Blues were the last team to inflict defeat on the German side.
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City will need to beat Gladbach to top the group, and hope that Sevilla’s motivation to secure a Europa League spot is enough to help them get a result against Juventus.
However, Manuel Pellegrini was surely right when he remarked that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United – all of whom might be eliminated from the Champions League this week – would want his problems. “Maybe if you finish top, you can have a draw against a big team that finished second in its group”.
“I repeat, in the way this team play I will not change because I think, in this moment, we are the most successful team here this season”.
“It’s important for the team to finish at the top of the group – our target is just to win our game – we can do nothing about what happens in the other game”.
Asked directly if the likes of Wilfried Bony, Nicolas Otamendi, Martin Demichelis or Eliaquim Mangala were not delivering, Pellegrini said: “I analyse the individual performances with the players, not with the press”.
Kompany remains out for Man City, while Yaya Toure, Fernando, Samir Nasri and Pablo Zabaleta are also unavailable.
They go into the game though without their skipper, and the stats show that in the 720 Premier League minutes Kompany has played in for City this season they’ve conceded a mere one goal, in comparison to 15 goals conceded in the 630 league minutes without him.
Meatier odds are offered if you partner it with the outcome and, given the aforementioned pro-Borussia Monchengladbach trends and the hosts going 20 games in front of their fans without a draw, the blend of away win and both teams to score leaps out at [8.2]. “The important players play so many games it is very hard not to be injured because they must continue playing in the worldwide break”.
“We don’t have that many players to rest”, Pellegrini added.
City have kept only two clean sheets in their last 10 Premier League games having kept six in a row prior to that, but Pellegrini denied that their defensive slump was down to skipper Kompany’s absence.
Manchester City faces Borussia Monchengladbach in an UEFA Champions League Group D tie on 08 December 2015.
“The defeat to Stoke is gone for us”.
“We have good facilities and good staff to help us recover as much as we can”.
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They have claimed at least a point from each of their past three Champions League matches, holding the otherwise faultless Juventus twice and firing four times past Sevilla.
