Manuel Pellegrini says his side must cut out mistakes if they are to progress in the Champions League, despite a 2-2 draw in their quarter-final first leg with PSG on Wednesday.
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Manchester City are at loggerheads with Belgium again over plans to play captain Vincent Kompany in next week’s Champions League quarter-final clash against Paris Saint-Germain.
Away goals by Kevin De Bruyne and Fernandinho at the Parc des Princes mean City have the upper hand ahead of next Tuesday’s return, but those strikes sandwiched a farcical goal gifted to Zlatan Ibrahimovic and an Adrien Rabiot effort for PSG.
“In the first half we made important mistakes that we can not do if we want to continue in the Champions League”, Pellegrini said.
“We have a hard 90 minutes in Manchester but I’m happy about the result tonight”.
“I don’t know if we were weak but there were many mistakes in terms of building up our play and in two of these mistakes it allowed Man City to score important away goals”, said coach Laurent Blanc.
Despite having two away goals Pellegrini warned his players they can not afford to be so careless on home soil: “It was a very close game against a very good team with very good players”.
“But we are trying to win the game from the first minute, it is the way we play”.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic had his penalty saved by City goalkeeper Joe Hart as the Premier League side twice punished defensive mistakes by their hosts to get the two goals. I just needed a drink and I’m pretty sure he is one player who you are not going to be able to change his mind or make him do anything you want him to do. We should have scored first, but unfortunately we didn’t and City opened the scoring.
PSG center half David Luiz shown a yellow card inside first minute for bringing down striker Sergio Aguero and misses the return leg, as does PSG midfielder Blaise Matuidi after getting booked early in the second half. We need to go to Manchester to win, but I’m confident.
Pellegrini is leaving City at the end of the season to make way for Pep Guardiola but remains unwilling to discuss his future, despite recent links with the vacancy at Valencia.
“We made avoidable mistakes. But we are playing against a very hard, very good team”, he concluded.
Not long after Hart’s intervention City took the lead against the run of play, the visitors launching a swift counter-attack that ended with Kevin de Bruyne’s firing home Fernandinho’s intelligent pass.
“I missed a penalty and then a really good opportunity to score, but I never worry”, The Mirror quotes Ibrahimovic as saying.
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PSG sensed a chance to increase their advantage and a Di Maria cross from the right was headed against the woodwork by Ibrahimovic.
