City have never finished top of their Champions League qualifying group and last season were eliminated in the knockout round by Barcelona who went on to beat Juventus in the Berlin final.
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“It is also a test to win in a hard stadium like Turin and against a team with the quality of Juventus”.
Midfielder Fabian Delph is set to make his first start for City – four months after his controversial move from Aston Villa as Pellegrini shakes up his side.
There was a comical moment shortly before kickoff when the stadium announcer said “this is the team for Manchester United” – City’s biggest rival – before swiftly correcting himself. That’s why I was not so unhappy with the way we played because we didn’t have many chances to make substitutions and had to take off Sergio Aguero after 65 minutes.
“Juventus have a very strong side”.
Over the last few years the world of football has been witness to a Manchester City side that has been exceptional in the Premier League, but when it came to the Champions League, they have been anything but that.
“I think it is very important to qualify for the third time in a row for the next stage of the Champions League”, he said.
Already qualified for the knockout stages, Real’s win ensures it will finish top of Group A, while defeat ends Shakhtar’s slim qualifying hopes. If I´m looking on their team, I must say that I like it!
“We hope we will not lose him”.
“It was a unusual and fake game that we played, and that is the past”.
“They took the game to Juventus, they suffered in parts in the first half, but they got to grips with that eventually and Manchester City can count themselves a little bit unfortunate to lose the game”.
“That’s a lot easier said than done, but we’ve been given every tool required to do it and it’s down to us as players”. We have to wait on Juve playing Seville away from home.
Pablo Zabaleta, Eliaquim Mangala, Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Wilfried Bony and Samir Nasri are all unavailable, although Silva may return against Southampton on Saturday.
Ronaldo opened the scoring with an 18th-minute header off a flick from Gareth Bale, before assisting first Luka Modric and then Dani Carvajal for goals in the space of three second-half minutes. Juventus are keen on moving into the final 16 as the Group D leaders, but that might not mean that they get an easier draw.
Winning this match remains important for Man City who want to avoid Barcelona in the next stage.
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‘The minimum we deserved was a draw but they scored a goal and I thought there was a foul before Mandzukic finished the play.
