Pellegrini’s half-time jolt does the trick

MANCHESTER — Manuel Pellegrini gave his Manchester City players a 45-minute warning to keep their Champions League ambitions alive before two late Sergio Aguero goals secured a remarkable victory against Bayern Munich.

Trailing 2-1 to the German champions, who had been reduced to 10 men following the first-half dismissal of defender Mehdi Benatia, Aguero’s two goals in the final five minutes revived City’s prospects of qualification for the knock-out stages.

Although a defeat against Bayern would have left City requiring a three-goal victory against Roma in Rome next month, Aguero’s late heroics ensured that the Premier League champions can now qualify from Group E with a scoring draw if CSKA Moscow lose in Munich.

But with his team losing at half-time, Pellegrini revealed he was forced to spell out the desperate situation facing his players unless they overturned Bayern’s lead to win the game.

“My first thought at half-time was that we conceded two unbelievable goals and when you do that, it is very difficult to win,” Pellegrini said.

“But I told the players we had 45 minutes to score two goals, otherwise we were out. I said it was our last chance to stay in the Champions League and I told them not to allow their spirit to fall down. Another team may do that, but this team never does that. It is never beaten and it always does its all to win.”

Having claimed their first victory of the group by defeating Pep Guardiola’s team, City simplified the task facing them in the Stadio Olimpico on Dec 10.

A victory, combined with Bayern taking at least a point off CSKA in the Allianz Arena, would see City progress, while a scoring draw would also be enough if the Russian champions lose in Bavaria.

“I do not know if this kind of victory gives a lot of trust (belief) to the squad, but we will see what we have to do and see what happens against Rome,” said Pellegrini.

Aguero’s performance evoked memories of the Argentine’s dramatic contribution to City’s Premier League title success in 2011-12, when the forward’s injury-time winner against Queens Park Rangers secured the championship.

Bayern coach Guardiola, while praising the quality of City’s players, insisted, however, that his team handed the victory to their opponents with late mistakes by Xabi Alonso and Jerome Boateng.

“We lost the game because we gave them the game,” Guardiola said. “But that is football.

“They had hardly any chances, with 11 men to 10, but we gave them the game. We were tired in the last 10 minutes, which is why we made changes to regain control, but we lost. When we lose, if we play s***, we accept we play s***, but we are happy because we didn’t deserve to lose.”

With City relying on Bayern defeating CSKA to keep their qualification hopes alive, Guardiola reassured Pellegrini that his team would aim to beat the Russians.

“We didn’t come here for holidays or to have fun,” Guardiola said. “We came to win and we came close to doing it and we also play to win against CSKA Moscow.” THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

Results of Tuesday’s Champions League matches:

Group E — CSKA Moscow 1 Roma 1, Manchester City 3 Bayern Munich 2

Group F — Apoel Nicosia 0 Barcelona 4, PSG 3 Ajax 1

Group G — Schalke 0 Chelsea 5, Sporting Lisbon 3 NK Maribor 1

Group H — Bate Borisov 0 FC Porto 3, Shakhtar Donetsk 0 Athletic Bilbao 1