There was no escape after 18 minutes as Alex Sandro, also impressive on the right, curled in a hanging cross and Mandzukic shook off the attention of Nicolas Otamendi to to volley past Hart.
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For City to top the group and so have the best chance of a favourable last-16 draw they must defeat Borussia Mönchengladbach and hope Sevilla beat Juventus in the closing round. “Sevilla have to win that game to try to qualify for the Europa League”, said Pellegrini. He has a problem with his hamstring.
But coach Massimiliano Allegri’s tactical options are limited, with Sami Khedira joining several other midfielders on the treatment table while France left-back Patrice Evra is set for a fitness test on Tuesday after suffering a left ankle problem. If we lose and they win they will go ahead. “But I wasn’t. I exhausted quite quickly”, said Sagna. We have to wait on Juve playing Seville away from home.
“I’m expecting a really hard game, irrespective of who plays”.
“I made the decision to field Mandzukic a couple of days ago, we needed a player with his characteristics”, Allegri said in a touchline television interview.
Pellegrini’s side had chances to score, but Juve were ruthless.
Both Fernadinho and substitute Raheem Sterling were guilty of wasting superb chances at Juventus Stadium and with City now likely to finish second in the group, Quinn believes Manuel Pellegrini’s side could pay the price for those missed opportunities when the draw for the last 16 comes around. “We’re proud of that statistic so the lads deserve all the credit they get”.
Fernando, an unlikely name, was first to react to the Belgian’s ball in from the left, and had Buffon scrambling across goal to push his header onto the post, then gathering the ball before Yaya Toure could pounce on the rebound. We had the first chance from Fernandinho but we didn’t do it. After that we managed not to go for the game in an unbalanced team, we continued trying to dominate the game. Those were goals that could have essentially put the game on ice and would have prevented us from having a few of those late-game heart-up-in-your-throat situations that always seem to happen when watching this team. I am not unhappy the way we played.
Moreso, City want a positive result to forget their most recent performance.
Many Juve fans raised an eyebrow when they saw Mandžukić in the starting XI instead of Morata, but the tall forward responded in style.
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Having been paired with and beaten by Barcelona after qualifying as runners-up over the past two seasons, City are expected to place significant value on topping the pile in the round-robin stage this time around.
