Juventus beat Man City 1-0 to reach Champions League last 16

City suffered a further injury blow when England goalkeeper Hart limped off with a hamstring injury in the 81st minute of the 1-0 Group D defeat at the Juventus Stadium.

However, with Juventus travelling to Sevilla and City hosting Borussia Monchengladbach on Matchday Six, Pellegrini still thinks his side, who have already qualified for the last 16, have a chance of finishing as group winners. Sevilla must win that game if they want to continue in the Europa League.

“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”. They have very good players who can collaborate together, while in the City I see only top players, who win against weak teams but with the top clubs, they lose. We hope our team will have more luck in the draw of the round of 16 this year but we will see.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini said beating Juventus on their own turf would also be a gauge of his side’s Champions League-winning potential, but it quickly became clear their current injury woes would play to Juve’s advantage.

“There is one game more and the group is not finished”.

The Citizens were whipped 4-1 by Liverpool in their last league game at the weekend.

Given that City have already guaranteed qualification from Group D into the knockout stages of the Champions League, the sensible decision would conceivably be to give him the night off.

“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.

Sergio Aguero had Man City’s best chance of the first half, just before halftime, when Marchisio played an unthinkable back pass toward Gianluigi Buffon.

City enjoyed some decent possession but failed to generate any real chances, while at the other end Hart bravely saved at the feet of Lichtsteiner after he surged into the right side of the box on 42 minutes.

“It’s not an easy stadium, it’s not an easy team, but we couldn’t get the result we wanted”.

Pellegrini said: “In this moment, it is impossible to know”. “He has a problem in his hamstring, maybe it can be from the hamstring or the back problem he has been carrying in the last few weeks”.