“From our perspective, we just need to win this game and see where it takes us”.
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“Vincent is improving. He is doing some tests on his calf and seeing what is the best way forward”.
Stoke City were brilliant here, they have a talented squad capable of finishing in the top six and Mark Hughes, the manager, deserves huge credit for a remarkable job.
Manuel Pellegrini’s long-term job prospects at Manchester City appear as flimsy as the plastic shopping bags that were being blown around the Britannia Stadium at Stoke on Saturday.
The only two times the English club has been runner-up in its group, it has been drawn to play Barcelona in the next round – and was eliminated both occasions.
Boss Pellegrini says he will field his strongest side on Tuesday, despite Martin Demichelis being ruled out with a tendon problem to become City’s 38th different injury this season. To compound their problems they will be without Sergio Aguero again. “We haven’t played that formation (4-3-3) before but there was a feeling in the back of my mind about today”, he added.
However, the Chilean insisted that the latest setback, in the weekend defeat at Stoke, was down to collective failure not Kompany’s absence.
Barring an unlikely turn of events on match day 6, Man City will likely finish behind Juventus which will mean another campaign where the Sky Blues have to negotiate superior opponents in the knockout stages.
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.
“They are probably about where they should be at the moment in the Bundesliga”.
Despite the number of casualties in the team, Manchester City are still just three points shy of the leaders Leicester in the Premier League.
It was a tight game for City in their last European outing away to Juventus, but unless the Italian champions lose away to bottom side Sevilla, the narrow 1-0 defeat in Turin appears to have made all the difference and they face another tricky last 16 assignment. “Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal would like to be in our position”.
Maybe it can be more hard to win the Champions League but I don’t want to have excuses why we don’t continue further.
“He can change the way we play because everyone tries to link with him and he makes the tempo of the game, and he has the most accurate passing in the last third for our team”.
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“We know we can ask questions of the best and we were able to do that this afternoon”.
