Guess what the boss left behind! @ChrisWheelerDM
PELLEGRINI PASSPORT BLUNDER
MANCHESTER City are hoping for a more comfortable passage in Germany tonight than manager Manuel Pellegrini, who was forced to make a frantic dash home yesterday following a passport mix-up.
The 62-year-old Chilean stepped off the team bus at Manchester airport and dived straight into a taxi when he realised his embarrassing error.
Pellegrini retrieved the correct passport from his house in Hale, Cheshire, and returned half an hour later to catch the team’s flight to Dusseldorf with 10 minutes to spare. ‘It is not important,’ said Pellegrini awkwardly when asked about the blunder at his pre-match press conference last night. ‘I have two passports and I brought the wrong passport.’
City can ill afford to be quite so careless when they face Borussia Monchengladbach in the Champions League this evening.
Pellegrini’s side have lost three of their last four games, starting with the Group D opener at home to Juventus this month, and the margin for error here has narrowed significantly for a team who have made a habit of doing things the hard way in this competition.
Having been unable to get out of the group on two occasions under Roberto Mancini, Pellegrini has achieved qualification in his two years in charge only to run into Barcelona. ‘It is not a final but it is a very important game,’ said the City boss. ‘We want to recover the points we dropped at home. We know that the Champions League is just five games in which we must qualify.
‘I don’t think we have failed in Europe. We have qualified for the knockout stages in my two seasons here and lost to Barcelona who are the best team in the world. We have beaten Bayern Munich twice. Last season we won our last two games against Bayern Munich and Roma, so we know how to do it. This season we lost to Juventus — a strange game.’
City arrived here without captain Vincent Kompany, Eliaquim Mangala and Samir Nasri who are all injured.
David Silva, who has not played since the Juventus defeat, and Yaya Toure trained in Manchester yesterday morning and are expected to feature.
At least Pellegrini can call on Kevin De Bruyne, who returns to Germany a month after his £ 54million move to City from Wolfsburg. The Belgian has settled quickly, scoring in his last three games, and announced this week that his girlfriend Michele Lacroix is expecting their first child.
‘It makes me excited,’ said De Bruyne. ‘ I don’t know if it is reflected in the way I’m playing but my family and my girlfriend are looking forward to it.
‘I think I’ve come into the team more quickly because of the injuries we’ve had but it has surprised me a bit.
‘It’s nice to score goals but I prefer to win, to be honest.’ Borussia are welcoming European Cup football back to Monchengladbach for the first time in 37 years, and there will be a hot reception for City in the 54,000capacity Borussia-Park.
It has not been an easy season so far. Six defeats in a row led to the resignation of manager Lucien Favre this month, with Under 23 coach Andre Schubert taking over on an interim basis.