Football Soccer – Manchester City v Real Madrid – UEFA Champions League Semi Final First Leg – Etiha …
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Pellegrini wanted the Southampton game, which kicks off at 4.30pm on Sunday, brought forward to Saturday. Anybody with just a passing interest in City’s fortunes will be amazed at how this side, so incapable of putting up a fight against any half-decent English club, have got to the final four of Europe’s most challenging club competition.
“I understand what happens with Real Madrid and I know about Cristiano’s injury, and that maybe it is not a big injury”.
It looks to be pride more than anything left to play for for Manchester City in this clash against European football hopefuls Southampton at St Mary’s.
“For me it is unbelievable, but if you see other leagues, including Italy, the teams that play Champions League play their domestic games on a Friday”, Pellegrini said.
But he made it clear the performance was the players’ responsibility with only Kelechi Iheanacho, the scorer of both City goals, emerging with credit. City were angry that a request to have that game moved failed and they consequently fielded an under-strength side at Stamford Bridge.
Pellegrini said: “I said about the FA Cup that the format is wrong. We are three points behind Arsenal and if we beat Arsenal we’ll be in third position before the last game”.
It’s been a similar story at Bayern this season where 19-year-old Kingsley Coman has started 19 Bundesliga games and Joshua Kimmich, 21, has started 23 matches in all competitions.
“Our aim is to win the Champions League – that was always the project”, he said.
The former Barcelona boss has a reputation for trusting young talent and, at the Camp Nou, he gave debuts to 15 youth team players in four years including Sergio Busquets, Thiago Alcantara and Sergi Roberto while allowing veteran forwards Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto’o to leave as he built his side around Lionel Messi.
City will be without David Silva for the trip to Madrid after the Spanish playmaker suffered a hamstring injury in midweek.
“It is quite tough for him to recover in one week”, Pellegrini said. Yaya Toure won’t feature this weekend either however Manuel Pellegrini is hopeful that the Ivorian will be back in time for this next weeks Champions League action. The Senegal-born striker has endured a mixed season for Southampton, scoring 10 league goals so far, but failing to find the back of the net in 19 league appearances between November and March.
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Pellegrini insisted he would do “exactly the same again” in terms of his vast rotation, despite accepting the defeat could impact Wednesday’s return leg in Madrid – and dent City’s chances of securing a top-four league finish.
