City boss Pellegrini plays down Aguero, Jovetic injury fears

Published Nov. 24, 2014 7:54 a.m. ET

foxsports

Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has played down concerns over the fitness of Sergio Aguero and Stevan Jovetic ahead of Tuesday's crucial clash against Bayern Munich.

Neither Aguero nor Jovetic, City's only two fit senior strikers, played a full part in the final training session before the potentially decisive Champions League Group E encounter at the Etihad Stadium.

Both were with the squad as Pellegrini addressed his players prior to training at the City Football Academy but then left, along with the injured David Silva, Aleksandar Kolarov and Edin Dzeko, before the session began.

Pellegrini later denied there are any serious problems as he met media for his pre-match press conference.

The Chilean said: "Both of them, Aguero and Jovetic, are in the squad list for tomorrow. They have no problems for tomorrow night.

"They didn't work normally because they have a small thing after the last game but nothing important."

City are also without midfielders Yaya Toure and Fernandinho through suspension for a match they are anxious to win.

Pellegrini's men have collected just two points from their first four Group E games and are facing failure to reach the knockout stages for a third time in four seasons.

They will be eliminated if they fail to beat Bayern and there is a winner in the game between CSKA Moscow and Roma.

Scenarios do exist where City can still progress if they do not win, but Pellegrini accepts there is little room for error.

He said: "Nobody in the whole team is happy (about) the way we have played this stage of the group.

"We have tomorrow, our last chance to try to win this year, to beat Bayern Munich and continue to have chances to go to the next stage."