betprepare.com

City must win, Roma doing brilliantly

City desperately want to prove themselves in the Champions League, which puts a lot of pressure on the team. Roma have had a brilliant start to the season, but they struggle with absences

Getty Images

Manchester City's attempts to do something worth mentioning in the Champions League are turning border-line desperate. But, yet another Champions League campaign for the English champion has starter off badly. The injury time was all they had to survive through at Allianz Arena to get a point, but they couldn't stop Jerome Boateng from scoring for Bayern's win in the opening group stage game. 

That makes today's meeting with Roma extremely important. The Italian club have started their European campaign with a win over CSKA. A good result at Etihad would lay a very solid foundation for their hopes of reaching the next round. 

City know they simply cannot lose this game. A point would not be too helpful either, which means they have to go for the win. City beat Hull 4-2 in the Premier League over the weekend, but displayed some shortcomings in defense once again. After taking the double lead very early, they allowed Hull to equalize by half time. Mangala scored an own-goal, while Hernadez scored the equalizer for Hull from a penalty kick. 

Dzeko and Lampard's goals secured the win for City late in the game. Pellegrini turned back to the good old 4-4-2 formation. He used it last season, and it seemed to be the most efficient of tactics for his club.

The game with Roma is, of course, a much tougher task compared to Hull. The Italian club are doing great at the moment, they're under much less pressure, while Pellegrini has to ask of his players to win. And that is never an easy task in Champions League.

- We got unlucky and lost to Bayern in Munich, but even if we got a point there, we would still have to beat Roma. We want the Champions League title as soon as possible. We can handle the pressure. We lost the opening game last season as well, but went on to win the other five group stage games - Pellegrini said. He lost Nasri for a month, and his defensive midfielder Fernando didn't recover from an injury either. At least Jovetic is back.

- Our game is good, but we failed to score home against Stoke and Chelsea. But we scored 11 goals in the last two games, which makes me very optimistic - Pellegrini said. He knows Roma are doing brilliantly at the moment, which makes them a very tough opponent, despite the fact they can't count on all of their players either.

- Roma has fast players with excellent technical skills. They're burstng with confidence following a great start to the season. We're meeting them at the worst of times. I'm sure their cunning coach Garcia is setting up some traps for us. But, we're playing home and have nothing to be afraid of - Pelegrini said. He's starting with Dzeko and Aguero as strikers. Dzeko scored 4 goals in the last 2 games.

Bad news for Pellegrini is that City always conceded at least one goal in the last seven Champions League matches at Etihad.

A week of truth is starting for Roma today. They will do two games that will finally answer the question whether they're ready for the greatest achievements. Following a brilliant start to the season and five championship wins completed with destruction of CSKA in the Champions League, Roma now face two extremely tough away games. They are meeting Juventus for a Serie A derby in Turin after the game in Manchester.

Roma's game is brilliant, but coach Garcia is struggling with injuries that left him with less options for the line-up. He believes that only City are to feel the pressure in their meeting today:

- It will be a fantastic game. City still have no points and the pressure of doing well home is on them. We are quite good and this team proved they believe in themselves. They are ready to survive the tough moments. We're happy to be playing Europe's two top team. We have to enjoy this moment and try and get ahead.

The biggest news regarding Roma is Iturbe, who is back on the team. But, since he still struggled with the injury, probably won't play in Manchester. Astori, Castan, Balzaretti, midfielders Ucan, Strootman, De Rossi, and forward Borriello are still out due to injuries.