Pellegrini calls for more from City
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Article summary
Despite a fourth win in five in Group D, Manuel Pellegrini said Manchester City FC lacked "intensity and discpline", with Pavel Vrba enjoying FC Viktoria Plzeň's "great display".
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Manuel Pellegrini, Manchester City manager
I'm satisfied because we won the game, but I don't think we played well – we didn't play with enough intensity or discipline. Sergio [Agüero] didn't have any [injury] problems. He knew from the start he was only going to play for 45 minutes.
Joe Hart played very well, I didn't expect him to have to work so much during the game. I think this is the game, in both the Premier League and the Champions League, in which our opponents have had the most chances.
We can attack and score four goals without giving away so many chances in defence as we did today. One of the most important things about being an attacking team is knowing how to defend well. I'm not going to start talking about individual players, we have to defend as a team and today we didn't have the intensity or discipline to do that.
[Plzeň] did very well – credit to them for the way they played. I saw their last game against Bayern and they played very well then too. As I said to the players before the game, if you give them time and space they'll do damage.
Pavel Vrba, Plzeň coach
I'm very happy we have been able to build on our success in the Europa League two years ago with a very good performance tonight. My team were very strong and it was a great performance – I'm only not happy with the final result.
We must not forget we were up against an extremely strong team. We played really well and at half-time the stats were level. In the second half we got into their box a lot, though Joe Hart had a good game. In the end, they were better at converting their chances. I'm pleased we scored two goals away, but we could have scored even more.
Tonight's performance should not be compared with our away game against Bayern [a 5-0 loss on matchday three], where we played with too much respect and fear and struggled the whole match. In contrast, we enjoyed it tonight. Unfortunately we didn't get a point, but nevertheless we played football that we do not have to be ashamed of. It was our best display in the group stage.
