Pellegrini: The group is not finished

City had already secured their progress before the game but the defeat leaves them two points behind Juventus with one match remaining and therefore staring at the prospect of finishing second in the group and facing a tougher last-16 draw.

A chance to bounce back in the Champions League on Wednesday was then passed up as City missed a number of decent goalscoring chances and lost 1-0 to Juventus in Turin.

City will be home to Borussia Monchengladbach, while Juve will play away to Sevilla on the group stage’s final matchday. “Sevilla must win that game if they want to continue in the Europa League so the group is not finished”.

“I hope we beat Borussia and still finish top of the group because it is important to arrive in the knock out stages in first position”, Pellegrini said.

Both before their defeat to Juventus on Wednesday night and after it, a quick glance at the odds for the eventual winners of the Champions League revealed that among the English teams in the competition, Manchester City are now favourites.

But moments later the visitors were stunned when Alex Sandro fired a delightful cross into the path of Mandzukic, who muscled his way past Nicolas Otamendi to finish.

“[Injuries?] As for Joe Hart – it is impossible to know how serious his injury is at this point”.

Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Eliaquim Mangala, Pablo Zabaleta, Samir Nasri and Wilfried Bony were already on the injury list. “And that is in addition to all the skills and qualities of the Manchester City players, that are also very important”.

“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.

“We have to forget this game (at Juventus) and try to bounce back in the league”.

He said: “I think that we finished with the game – that very bad game that we played on Saturday – on Sunday morning”.

Fernando nodded the ball downward and it hit the under of the post but Yaya Toure failed to score from a rebound, Buffon alert to the situation. Pellegrini is coming under increasing pressure to get his team back on track and he might have to dip into the transfer market once again when the January window opens.

As the second half wore on neither side would be able to grab control of the clash, with both City and Juve having chances which could see further additions to the score-line. Kompany has started in only two Champions League games this season and has also missed a chunk of league fixtures due to injury.