But Pellegrini insists that his team are making progress in Europe and that his players have proved their credentials in the competition. “We have qualified for the last two knockout stages and lost to Barcelona, the best team in the world”.
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“We have beaten Bayern Munich twice, won against Roma away, so we know how to do it”.
“This season we lost to Juventus – a unusual game“.
“Now we are trying again in the next five games to qualify for the next stage in Europe”.
It saw their captain, Vincent Kompany, go off with a calf injury.
No sooner had the ghosts of Günter Netzer and Berti Vogts been stirred than Borussia fell apart, losing six successive games, which triggered Favre’s resignation and his replacement by André Schubert, coach of the Under-23 side, as a caretaker.
Pellegrini revealed that Samir Nasri, Wilfried Bony, Gael Clichy, Fabian Delph, Eliaquim Mangala and Vincent Kompany have all been ruled out of the game.
The group is on a knife edge, as after two games all four sides lie on three points.
“Of course, Vincent is a very important player“, said the 62-year-old.
Borussia M’gladbach is the home team for this match and that means even if they are not as strong as their opponent; they have a very good chance of winning this match with their added advantage. The Argentine’s group?stage hat-trick against Bayern last season showcased his quality and cool precision in front of goal, but he is repeatedly shouldering the goalscoring burden on his own and City have faltered because Aguero’s fellow strikers have failed to deliver.
Pellegrini had a minor mishap before the Citizens flight to Germany after revealing he took the wrong passport to the airport and had to rush home for the right one. He later admitted he had blundered over his passport.
When asked about the mishap in yesterday’s press conference, the Chilean coach said: “It is not important”.
City make the journey to Northwest Germany to face 1970s powerhouse turned recent upstart Borussia Mönchengladbach (I’ve committed memory to learning how to spell it without reference, it’s not as bad once you break it down as Munching Glad Wraps) who have started out the season equally as shoddy at 2-0-5 and within two spots of the Bundesliga relegation zone.
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Pellegrini shared media duties with Kevin de Bruyne who, on a personal level, has made a flying start to his City career after his £54million move from Wolfsburg a month ago.
