Wednesday 17 September 2014 19:04, UK
Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini has paid tribute to Bayern Munich counterpart Pep Guardiola ahead of Wednesday’s Group E UEFA Champions League opener.
Pellegrini believes his side will have to work extremely hard to repeat their 3-2 victory over the German champions in the Allianz Arena in last season’s competition.
But the 61-year-old insists his team, who also lost 3-1 at home to Bayern last term, have to be wary of showing too much respect to the Bundesliga side.
“I think that we will approach it as we do most of our matches, trying always to impose our footballing qualities, and to overcome Bayern Munich with our footballing qualities, but to also consider details regarding our opponents - not as a priority but as something important,” Pellegrini told City's official website.
“For example when we give the ball to Bayern Munich we know it is very difficult to beat them.
“When we play like we are used to, and have ball possession, then it will be difficult for Bayern to win the ball back.
“So there are various aspects which start, for me, with the personality of the team to be able to impose their football against any opponent and on any pitch.
“If you watch Bayern play, it is clearly the team of Pep Guardiola and this shows the quality he has, and the work that his team has been doing.
“I think that the tie, especially the match we played in Manchester, here you could see great ball possession shown by Bayern, with technically very strong players and a very bad day for us, in terms of winning the ball.”
While City have won their domestic title twice in the last three years, they have achieved little in the Champions League.
In our group we have three domestic champions, the English champions, the German champions, and the Russian champions. So our group seems a bit unbalanced.
Although English football is virtually guaranteed four teams in Europe’s elite competition every season, Pellegrini reckons the Premier League winners should be among the top seeds in the draw along with the German champions.
“It is, for the champions. I think that the champions of England and the champions of the German league, with both leagues being among the best leagues in Europe, they deserve to be in pot one,” Pellegrini said.
“This season we again have Bayern Munich, Manchester City and CSKA Moscow. I do not think it is good to repeat the group exactly as the year before.
“I don't think it´s good that the teams who play qualification because they finished fourth in their domestic leagues are in pot 1, where the strongest teams should be.
“In our group we have three domestic champions, the English champions, the German champions, and the Russian champions. So our group seems a bit unbalanced.
“I think we need to find a modification whereby, for example, all teams who play qualification go into pot four and all champions of their respective leagues and have a lot of points in Europe (a high coefficient) go into pot one.
“There is a need for some modifications to not let something like what happened to us happen again, and then on the other hand for the teams who play preliminaries to not appear with the most important ones in Europe.”
