City came from behind to beat Borussia Monchengladbach 4-2 at the Etihad while Juventus were defeated 1-0 by Sevilla.
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“It is important for us to do our task, to win the game and then see what happens with Juventus”, City manager Pellegrini said.
I had mentioned in the first half that both Manchester’s played very similar to each other.
“It was his birthday – I told him before the game that the minimum he had to do today was score two goals”.
City had an opportunity to take the lead when Aleksandar Kolarov drilled into the side-netting, but with three minutes left before the break the German side completed the first-half turnaround when Lars Stindl helped on Wendt’s cross for Raffael to convert a simple finish from close range.
The Bundesliga outfit head into their final Group D encounter with no hope of qualifying for the Champions League knockout stages as they are four points adrift of Tuesday’s opponents in third place.
Although they had been knocking on the proverbial door for the entirety of the second half looking for that elusive equaliser, time was ticking for City to find it and they needed one of their players to step up.
Manuel Pellegrini claims Manchester City can match anyone in the Champions League soccer as he savoured one of their best Euro nights.
A minute later, Llorente had Sevilla’s first shot on goal when he received the ball and held off a defender before testing goalie Gianluigi Buffon.
The England global has developed into an important part of the first team at City since joining the club from Liverpool ahead of the 2015-16 campaign and has already netted eight goals from 22 appearances in all competitions.
He also added: “Now we have to concentrate on Swansea this Saturday – that’s a game we have to win because we want to get back to the top of the table as quickly as possible”.
He said City, who have a much worse record when Kompany is injured than when he plays, will not change to a more defensive style to cut down on the number of goals conceded.
“We are disappointed on one hand”, ‘Gladbach coach Andre Schubert said, “but we are happy that we have produced some good performances and represented Germany well in this hard group as newcomers”.
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Allegri, however, realized that in Europe you can’t always play champagne football and, at times, has set up Juventus to sit deep and counter like they did against Manchester City and away to Borussia Moenchengladbach.
