Pellegrini and Toure rue City luck in Juventus loss

Manager Manuel Pellegrini and midfielder Yaya Toure bemoaned Manchester City’s luck as they endured another Champions League night to forget at the Etihad Stadium.

The Premier League leaders, who have won five games from five domestically without conceding, went ahead in the 57th minute when Giorgio Chiellini put through his own goal under pressure from Vincent Kompany.

Mario Mandzukic converted Paul Pogba’s superb lofted pass to level with 20 minutes to play and Alvaro Morata got the better of City debutant Nicolas Otamendi – on for Kompany, who Pellegrini later confirmed had sustained a calf injury – to rifle a brilliant winner beyond Joe Hart.

For the fifth time in as many season in the Champions League, City have failed to win their first home game of the group stage.

They have only been victorious five of their 15 Manchester fixtures in Europe’s top competition, but Pellegrini believed they deserved something for their efforts on this occasion.

“It’s disappointing, I don’t think we deserved to lose,” he told BT Sport.

“We had better chances and played better than Juventus. It was a typical Champions League game, both teams didn’t create many chances but we had more possession.

“It was not a tactical problem, Juventus just scored two beautiful goals.” 

Toure has been regularly criticised for failing to bring his dominant Premier League form to showpiece Champions League nights – a perception the towering Ivorian did little to alter as Juve stole the points.

But Toure felt City’s opponents were fortunate and pointed towards some poor finishing from his own team.

“I think the Italian team played very well, they defended well and I think they were lucky,” he added.

“I don’t think we played so bad. We missed a lot of chances.

“We just have to be strong and try to bounce back in the next game. We’ve been brave and we have to learn from Europe and try to do it better.”