City had already qualified for the last 16, but Juventus have secured their progress and are now two points clear of Manuel Pellegrini’s side heading for the final round of fixtures.
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Sevilla, beaten 4-2 at Borussia Moenchengladbach, must beat Juventus in their last game and hope the Germans lose to City so they finish third in the group and go into the Europa League.
Allegri was greeted with suspicion and even hostility by Juventus fans when he replaced Antonio Conte last season but quickly won them over as his team won a league and cup double and reached the Champions League final.
“We have to see what Juventus will do against Sevilla”, said Pellegrini, who also complained that his defender Nicolas Otamendi was fouled by Mandzukic before the Croatian scored.
Youngster Kelechi Iheanacho could gain some big-game experience in attack instead, or Raheem Sterling could play as a false nine with Gael Clichy coming in at left-back and AleksandarKolarov pushing forward into midfield. One player can not play 50 games a season so we’ve got to consider the way we rotate them.
Pellegrini’s frustration was compounded by goalkeeper Joe Hart having his latest impressive European performance curtailed by an apparent hamstring injury. He has been carrying a problem in his back for the week. “And that is in addition to all the skills and qualities of the Manchester City players, that are also very important”.
“It’s part of football – to win, you have to score goals – but we missed chances and these things can happen”.
“We’re proud of that statistic so the lads deserve all the credit they get”. “We will see. We hope that we will not lose him but if for some reason he cannot play on Saturday I have a lot of trust in Willy Caballero”.
Pogba’s backheel to play in Mario Mandzukic was completely inconsequential as the striker fired over and was flagged offside anyway.
Then it was the turn of Buffon to perform heroics, as he rushed from his goal to deny Sergio Aguero, who couldn’t take advantage of a one-on-one chance after being presented the ball by Claudio Marchisio’s blind backpass. “David improved a little bit more the last two days and he’s working with the physio in Manchester”.
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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.
