Toure back as City target winning Champions League group

LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini will have the inspirational Yaya Toure available for Tuesday's final Champions League Group D game at home to Borussia Moenchengladbach, he told a news conference on Monday.

Toure back as City target winning Champions League group

(Reuters)





Several other senior players are still missing, however, including captain Vincent Kompany, fellow defenders Martin Demichelis and Pablo Zabaleta, midfielders Fernando and Samir Nasri and striker Sergio Aguero.

"We don’t have many players to rest," Pellegrini said, suggesting there would be "maybe just two or three changes" from the side that played poorly in a 2-0 defeat by Stoke City on Saturday.

City have already qualified for the knockout stage but to win the group they need to beat the Germans and hope that Juventus, two points ahead of them, lose away to Sevilla.

For the past two seasons City have gone through as runners-up and found themselves drawn against seeded Barcelona, who knocked them out each time.

Pellegrini's side won 2-1 away to Borussia on matchday two but he was impressed by the Germans' performance in inflicting a first defeat of the season on Bayern Munich at the weekend.

He said City, who have a much worse record when Kompany is injured than when he plays, will not change to a more defensive style to cut down on the number of goals conceded.

"I think in the way this team play I will not change because I think we are the most successful team here this season," he said.

"We are always the highest scoring team, and it is not us to play with eight or nine players in our box. We must continue not to change the style and not to make so many mistakes.

"The defeat to Stoke is gone. It’s important for the team to at least do their task and we’ll see what Juventus do against Sevilla."





(Reporting by Steve Tongue; editing by Clare Fallon)


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