As Manuel Pellegrini begins his quest to lead Manchester City to the Champions League knockout stage for the first time in their history he hopes to have a fit-again Vincent Kompany for tonight’s opening Group D match with Viktoria Plzen at the Doosan Arena.
A decision on the captain will be made today, as the Chilean plots to do what City have failed to do in their two previous tilts at the competition.
Groin injury
Kompany will return ahead of schedule if he plays after suffering a groin injury in City's 4-0 defeat of Newcastle United on August 19th and Pellegrini said: "Vincent worked with us normally over the last two days. We will see tomorrow if he is 100 per cent and speak with the doctor but, if he is fit, of course he will play."
Should Kompany fail to make it, Joleon Lescott can expect to take his place alongside Matija Nastasic as City attempt to win an opening group match at last.
Pellegrini said: “We have to win this game. It is very important to start with a win. We try but we are playing against a strong team.”
City hope to end an unwanted sequence started by the 1-1 draw with Napoli two years ago and followed by the despair of a 3-2 reverse to Jose Mourinho’s Real Madrid, when Roberto Mancini’s team snatched defeat from the jaws of famous victory by conceding two late goals to lose 3-2 at the Bernabeu.
The manner of that defeat – a duck by Kompany left Joe Hart exposed for Cristiano Ronaldo’s winner – was the tone-setter for a miserable campaign.
The Chilean was headhunted to solve the two faults the club grandees identified in Mancini: a volatile temperament and an odd failure to thrive against the continent’s aristocrats.
At Lazio, Internazionale and then City, Mancini’s best return was a quarter-final with the middle of those three clubs. In contrast Pellegrini’s Champions League CV features a semi-final with the less heralded Villarreal in 2006 and a quarter-final last season in charge of Malaga, when the Spanish club were only two Borussia Dortmund stoppage-time strikes away from progressing further.
Pellegrini is quick to advise wariness regarding a section this time around that also includes Bayern Munich and CSKA Moscow. "We can't be satisfied with the names of the teams we will face but we will qualify if we play well." –
Guardian Service
