adminMANCHESTER CITY goalkeeper Joe Hart is confident his team can qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League despite losing their first group match.
City were beaten 1-0 by Bayern Munich after a last-minute strike from former City defender Jerome Boateng.
Last season, City overcame an early loss to Bayern to reach the last 16.
“Last year we had a poor start against Bayern but we won the rest of our games and qualified – we’re confident we can do it again this time,” said Hart, 27.
The Premier League champions were indebted to their goalkeeper, who made a string of saves to keep the score at 0-0 before Boateng’s strike deflected off Mario Gotze’s back to hand Bayern the points.
City came close to equalising in stoppage time when substitute Sergio Aguero burst past Dante but poked his shot wide.
“We fought hard all night against a really good team and had chances as well,” said Hart. “We played well but just a nasty deflection at the end hurt. Jerome Boateng came back to haunt us.”
Boateng spent the 2010-11 season at City before he was sold to Bayern.
Hart added: “We made good clearances, we made good blocks and we made them work hard for everything.”
In the other Group E contest, Roma showed their pedigree with a 5-1 thrashing of CSKA Moscow. City host the Italians in their next Champions League game on September 30, before back-to-back games against CSKA.
“We showed that we can match Bayern Munich but we have some very tough games now and we have to play well against CSKA and Roma,” added Hart.
Bayern boss Pep Guardiola fully expects the group to go right to the wire.
“We know how difficult this group is,” said the 43-year-old former Barcelona coach. “We know it will not be decided until the last game so to start with this victory is very important for us.”
Former Arsenal full-back Bacary Sagna, who was making his European debut for City, urged his team-mates to swiftly put the Bayern game behind them and focus on Sunday’s Premier League game against leaders Chelsea.
“It’s very bad because until the end we were focused and we conceded a poor goal,” said the 31-year-old.
“We need to think about Chelsea now as we have a very difficult game on Sunday.” — BBC Sport
Online Reporter