Pellegrini: My Man City not European failures

His players will link up with their national squads after Saturday’s home league match against Newcastle.

“He is a very technical player“, Pellegrini added of the 24-year-old.

Pellegrini had a minor mishap before the Citizens flight to Germany after revealing he took the wrong passport to the airport and had to rush home for the right one.

Pellegrini’s gaffe provided a light-hearted moment ahead of the serious business of getting City’s campaign in Group D up and running. The influential midfielder joins Samir Nasri, Fabian Delph and Gael Clichy on the sidelines.

Stand-in skipper Yaya Toure only lasted a half at Borussia Park after aggravating a leg injury, while David Silva came off with 25 minutes to go.

He said: “Of course Vincent is a very important player”. City still fielded a team with huge talent, albeit little chemistry, and as we all know from playing FUT, if the players don’t link up, winning will be hard.

Belgium need three points from their last two games to book a place in Euro 2016 but Pellegrini said in a news conference: “Vincent can not play“.

City surrendered a lead to lose to Juve, a result that yet again raised questions about their ability to succeed on the European stage.

“I don’t think we failed in Europe – we have qualified for the two knock-out stages in my two seasons here and lost to Barcelona who are the best team in the world”, he said.

Borussia Monchengladbach were last season’s surprise package in the Bundesliga, finishing third behind Bayern Munich and VfL Wolfsburg, but they have struggled to match that form so far this season.

Even though they had the support of their home fans, Manchester City pulled off the win.

Monchengladbach’s interim coach Andre Schubert, who has revived the team’s spirits in recent weeks after a run of six successive losses, took positives from the hosts’ display.

And they needed a late Sergio Aguero penalty to register their first win in the Champions League.

“We can’t be afraid”.

“We have to play our very best to win this game, but it is not a final”.

Wolfsburg fell to a 2-1 defeat away to Manchester United in the Champions League on Wednesday to mean the English club caught them in the league table. All the previous games are not really relevant.

“We kept in the game, defended well, but we still lost”.

Throughout the entire match, both goalkeepers played remarkably well and were able to keep the score 1-1 until the 90th minute, when Aguero used his technical abilities to discombobulate the Borussia defenders, leaving them with no choice but to hack at his ankles.