Manchester City manager Manuel
Pellegrini said he had no option but to name a much-changed team for
Sunday's 4-2 Premier League defeat by Southampton with the club's
Champions League semi-final clash with Real Madrid scheduled on
Wednesday.
The Chilean made key changes to the side that held the Spanish club
to a 0-0 draw in last week's semi-final first leg and City were beaten
with Sadio Mane scoring a hat-trick after Shane Long put the Saints 1-0
up in the 25th minute.
City travel to Spain for the second leg of their semi-final against
Madrid on Wednesday and Pellegrini indicated his unhappiness at the
scheduling of the Southampton game for a late kick-off on Sunday,
instead of Saturday.
"I would do exactly the same again because we have an important game
on Wednesday, that we play now for the final in the Champions League,"
said Pellegrini, who rested Sergio Aguero, Vincent Kompany and Kevin de
Bruyne on Sunday.
Maybe if we played on Saturday
we could have another option for this game but playing with too many
players that are not playing often is difficult.
"I tried to select a team that would win the game. I also had to select a team based on who would play on Wednesday."
Pellegrini hoped the heavy defeat would not hurt his team's chances
in Madrid and insisted City were still in a good position to seal
Champions League qualification by finishing fourth in the Premier
League.
"The best way to prepare is to win but we couldn't do it," he added.
"I expected more -- especially defending. I'm very frustrated because I didn't expect that performance.
"(Now) it all depends on what we can do in these last two games. We
are three points behind Arsenal and if we beat Arsenal we'll be in third
position before the last game."
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