Joe Hart forced off injured as Manchester City lose at Juventus

“They scored the first goal that is a very doubtful play against Otamendi”.

But even more worrying was an injury to goalkeeper Joe Hart, who limped off with a hamstring problem after 81 minutes.

City have qualified for the last 16 with two games to spare, and a win in Turin tonight would guarantee them top spot in Group D.

City had already qualified following their 3-1 win at Sevilla but their chances of avenging their 2-1 defeat to Juventus at the Etihad Stadium in September looked doomed from the outset. We know they want to get first place and we also want to be first.

Despite defeat, Quinn thought there were plenty of positives for Pellegrini’s side, especially after their thrashing at the hands of Liverpool.

City forwards Wilfried Bony, David Silva and Samir Nasri are all still sidelined but the absence of Belgian centre-back and captain Vincent Kompany was most felt as Juventus went two points clear of City ahead of the sides’ final games next month.

“Both teams played well and we were unlucky to lose this game”, Pellegrini said.

Manchester City fell by a score of 1-0 to Juventus and relinquished the top spot in the group.

However, City are coming into this match on the back of a humiliating 4-1 loss to Liverpool FC at home. After losing key players like Arturo Vidal and Carlos Tevez over the summer, the Old Lady were always going to find things a little more hard this term and the now sit in sixth place after 13 matches. Those were goals that could have essentially put the game on ice and would have prevented us from having a few of those late-game heart-up-in-your-throat situations that always seem to happen when watching this team. “We can still finish top of the group”.

That is down to the Uefa rules for the last 16, which dictate that clubs who finish runners-up in their group have to face group winners in the first knockout round, and that clubs from the same association can not face each other.

“We had quite a lot of injuries from important players but we have to live with that”, Toure told reporters after the game.

Then it was the turn of Buffon to perform heroics, as he rushed from his goal to deny Sergio Aguero, who couldn’t take advantage of a one-on-one chance after being presented the ball by Claudio Marchisio’s blind backpass.

“I am not happy about the score but I think we made a good game in the condition that we are in at this moment”.