Football
9y

Manuel Pellegrini says 5-goal Man City won't let up attack against Barcelona

MANCHESTER -- Manuel Pellegrini promised to attack Barcelona in the way Manchester City did against Newcastle after recording their biggest league win of the season.

The Premier League champions beat Newcastle 5-0 and were 1-0 up after 60 seconds and three goals to the good after half an hour as Sergio Aguero, Samir Nasri and Edin Dzeko struck in the first half and David Silva then managed a two-minute brace.

Now Pellegrini has turned his attentions to Tuesday's Champions League clash with Barcelona and is vowing not to go on the defensive against the Spanish side.

He said in a news conference: "We are going to try from the beginning as we did today to be an aggressive team and to try and score goals because it is important.

"Maybe it is not a normal game because it is a game of 180 minutes so you must try to score but you must also try not concede because an away goal is very important. But on Tuesday I am sure you will see our team trying to play in the same way we did today."

City were knocked out by Barcelona at the same stage last season but Pellegrini believes they go into the rematch in better shape because they have had fewer fixtures and will benefit from their 4-1 aggregate defeat 12 months ago.

He added: "It is better because last year we arrived in February after we played 18 games in December and January. In this year we played less games in January. I hope the experience of last year will help us to have a good stage against Barcelona."

Pellegrini was pleased to see City rediscover their goal touch at the Etihad Stadium, where they had only scored once in their previous three games.

He explained: "We returned to being a scoring team here."

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