Fernandinho struck a vital equaliser as Manchester City drew 2-2 at PSG in the first-leg of their Champions League quarterfinal.
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“We’ll see him during the week and what he improves”, Pellegrini said. “We have a hard 90 minutes in Manchester but I’m happy about the result”, Pellegrini told reporters.
Pellegrini said: “It’s a big game but it’s also a big game at home to West Brom, especially with all the teams that are involved around playing each other”.
“Before that we made another mistake in giving away a penalty but if we want to win we can’t make those kind of mistakes, but the team had the personality to continue to try to win the game”.
In their first ever meeting in the European top-flight, the visitors grabbed the lead, first through Kevin De Bruyne, only for a defending gaffe from Fernando to allow Zlatan Ibrahimovic to restore parity just 5 minutes later. I don’t think that we are favourites – not before the game and not after this game.
The Spaniards, who also saw Karim Benzema limp off with a foot injury in the 40th minute, enjoyed a strong start but never recovered from the quick two-goal strike by the Wolves and were lucky not to have conceded a third in the second half.
The City captain has been plagued by recurring calf problems and has not played since limping out of the last 16 game against Dynamo Kiev on March 17.
Played clean through by Thiago Motta’s superb pass, Ibrahimovic had time to pick his spot from just inside the area but tried an ambitious curling shot that flew over.
“There was this penalty that I missed, that’s the way it is”.
City took full advantage seven minutes before the break as De Bruyne swept past PSG stopper Kevin Trapp for his 14th goal of the season following Fernando’s interception and an incisive Fernandinho pass. “Looking at the stats, we played the match we wanted to, but we made mistakes, in part due to City’s quality”.
“I think it’s still open for both teams”.
Manuel Pellegrini is considering gambling on Vincent Kompany’s fitness for Tuesday’s Champions League showdown against Paris Saint-Germain, despite the concerns of Belgium’s coach, Marc Wilmots, that a further injury may rule the defender out of Euro 2016.
“But if we can put in a similar performance in the second leg and get the same amount of chances, we will score goals”.
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City have given themselves a fighting chance of reaching the last four for the first time having earned a 2-2 draw with the French champions at the Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
