However they were handed a rude awakening in their Champions League group opener against Juventus with last season’s runners up coming from behind to secure a 2-1 win at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday.
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City manager Manuel Pellegrini surprisngly opted to take off the influential Kompany at this point and hand a debut to Nicolas Otamendi.
City face yet another uphill struggle to qualify for the knockout stages, despite splashing out £150million on the likes of Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne in the summer.
Premier League leaders City were fortunate to go ahead after 57 minutes when Vincent Kompany, climbing all over Giorgio Chiellini, saw the defender head an own goal as the home skipper wheeled away to celebrate instead of being punished for a foul.
“Man City will feel they need a response after Juventus, but that won’t affect their confidence”.
In defence, City will check on the fitness of captain Vincent Kompany, who has been instrumental in the clean sheets they have kept in each of their five league games so far.
“Overall I think the story of the game is City have so much to learn about competing against the better teams in Europe”.
The Italians thought they had taken the lead in the 12th minute when Paul Pogba headed in Juan Cuadrado’s right-wing cross, but it was ruled out as Morata was offside and interfering with play. Most recently, City defeated Crystal Palace 1-0 on a late victor from youngster Kelechi Iheanacho. Juventus once more displayed their disciplined, organized and sacrificial game to register their first European win this season. “I don’t think that we deserved to lose this game”.
Bony, who missed two good chances to beat Gianluigi Buffon, was also upbeat, although he admitted that the defeat already makes topping their group hard .
“We just have to be strong and try to bounce back in the next game”.
“Because in Champions League games the differences are very slight between the teams, especially against such a strong team as Juventus”.
“It was not a tactical problem”.
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“This is definitely a good thing because it allows us great flexibility”.
