adminMUNICH. — Coach Manuel Pellegrini admits Manchester City face an uphill task to break Bayern Munich’s record winning streak in the Champions League soccer in tonight’s battle for top spot in Group D. Bayern are on record runs in both the Bundesliga and Champions League and their 3-1 win at CSKA Moscow a fortnight ago was their tenth straight victory in Europe, breaking Barcelona’s previous record.
Bayern have turned the Allianz Arena into something of a fortress of late, winning all 18 home matches in all competitions since their last defeat in Munich last March at the hands of Arsenal. Both City and Bayern sides are through to the knock-out stages and all that remains to be settled is who will finish top of the group.
The defending champions have won all of their five group games so far, including a dominant 3-1 win last October at City, who are three points behind the German side. Pellegrini’s side would need to better that result at the Allianz Arena to knock Pep Guardiola’s Munich from top spot.
City have already pulled off a landmark achievement by reaching the Champions League’s knock-out stages, at the third attempt, with a 4-2 home win over Czech outfit Viktoria Pilsen at home a fortnight ago.
“We have qualified for the next round and this is very good,” said Pellegrini. It would be better to be first in the group, but we have already played against a very strong Bayern Munich team. They played better than us (in Manchester) and it will be very difficult to beat them 3-0 at their ground.
“But we will try to do a very good match and we will try to win.”
Despite beating CSKA Moscow and Pilsen on the road in Europe this season, City’s away record in the English Premier League is poor with only two wins in eight away games, including Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Southampton. — AFP.
Online Reporter
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