Pellegrini's Munich bull is a scandalous cock-up that could cost Man City millions and millions', fumes original youth Hamann

Pellegrini's Munich bull is a scandalous cock-up that could cost Man City millions and millions', fumes original youth Hamann

Former Manchester City midfielder Dietmar Hamann has described Manuel Pellegrini's Munich gaffe as 'scandalous' 'cock-up' that 'could cost the club millions and millions of pounds.'
Manchester City's Chilean manager, who has also been heavily criticised by ex-Liverpool boss Graeme Souness, failed to realise that one more goal against Bayern Munich would have seen the English club finish top of Champions League Group D... and they had a full 28 minutes to try to score it!
James Milner scored in the 62nd minute to put City 3-2 up at the Allianz Arena, leaving Pellegrini's side requiring a solitary goal to leapfrog the Germans at the top of the group thanks to a superior head-to-head record.
A 4-2 result City would have seen them avoid the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid in the knockout stages.
Leading goalscorer Sergio Aguero was left sitting on the bench as Pellegrini waited until the 88th minute to make his final substitution, replacing striker Edin Dzeko with midfielder Jack Rodwell.
Hamann, 44, speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, said: 'It’s a cock up. It shouldn’t have happened. The whole of the City coaching staff haven’t bathed themselves in any glory

 

Pellegrini unaware City needed one more goal to overtake Bayern

PELLEGRINI POST-MATCH INTERVIEW

SKY SPORTS: You're 3-2 up, you've got quite a bit of time to get this goal which would have topped the group, were you not tempted to put on (Sergio) Aguero, your best striker?

PELLEGRINI: I was tempted if we scored the fourth goal of course, that's why I sent out Aguero to warm up but also I think that it was a risk to continue with (David) Silva, he can't play more than 70 minutes. 

'Bayern Munich earned £60million odd by winning the Champions League. Winning the last-16 or going out will cost millions and millions of pounds.
'If Man City had won the group they would have faced Basel, Schalke, Bayer Leverkusen, Olympiakos, Zenit St Petersburg or Porto and, with no disrespect to those teams, they would have had a bye into the quarter-finals. As it happens, there is a big question mark over whether they will be there.'
'It’s a great win for them (Man City) but another goal would have made a huge difference. City will now face Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid or PSG, if Chelsea and Arsenal win their groups.'
Hamann, who also played for Bayern Munich, Newcastle and Liverpool, added that Pellegrini's backroom team should 'houlder some of the blame.
'I’m sorry Mr Pellegrini, but a manager is only as good as his backroom staff,' he told talkSPORT host Colin Murray. 'He must have had nine people behind him and for none of them to know and make him aware that another goal would have put them top is ridiculous. It’s scandalous.
'Players can’t tap on the manager’s shoulder and say: "Listen gaffer you’ve got to bring Aguero on because if we get one more goal, we’ll win the group". One of the coaches have to do that.
Souness, working as a pundit on Sky Sports, was equally critical. He said: ‘I’m not sure he’s understanding the goal difference here. It has to be the strangest substitution this season in taking off Dzeko, a centre forward, and putting on Rodwell, who at best is an attacking midfielder.

Confusion: Pellegrini said he was tempted to bring Aguero on if City scored the fourth, but they only needed one

Mishap: Pellegrini brought off Edin Dzeko in the closing stages and brought on Jack Rodwell

'I would suggest that they've not spoken about it and he wasn't aware. Maybe the guys he's sitting with on the bench, Brian Kidd and his other coach, had not spoken about it and weren't aware that 4-2 gets them through.
'When he says (in his post-match interview), 'if we'd got another goal, I'd told Aguero to warm up', it tells you he's thinking he needs to get five. It was one of the strangest substitutions I've seen in a long time.'
Pellegrini admitted that he would only have put on Aguero if City had made it 4-2.

Man City could have gone through with another goal, based on their head-to-head record against Bayern

Second place: Pellegrini said it 'was difficult to score two goals' with the score at 3-2, but City only one

Turnaround: James Milner wheels away after putting City 3-2 ahead in Munich having been 2-0 down

TEAMS CITY COULD NOW FACE

• Real Madrid
• Paris Saint-Germain
  
• Atletico Madrid
  
• Barcelona/AC Milan
  
• Borussia Dortmund
  
• Basel

‘Maybe if we had scored a fourth goal I would have made the change,’ said the confused Chilean coach. ‘It was important to be first in the group but not the most important.
‘Arsenal on Sunday was a priority above this game. I said it was very difficult to win by three goals.’
James Milner, who scored the winning goal with 28 minutes left, said: ‘We’re slightly disappointed we did not finish top of the group.

No holding back: Sky Sports pundit Graeme Souness

'We didn’t know if 4-2 would be enough or if we would need 5-2. We thought it needed to be 5-2 to be honest.’
Sky Sports analysts Souness, Glenn Hoddle and Sportsmail columnist Jamie Carragher were all left baffled by Pellegrini’s decision.
Hoddle added: ‘Does he understand that 4-2 puts him through (as group leaders). ‘There’s no urgency to make a substitution.’
Carragher said: ‘He must know he can’t play any English team and the ones left — Barcelona, Real Madrid, maybe Atletico Madrid — could be massive.’
Pep Guardiola said: 'I would like to congratulate Man C for this great victory. It is never good to lose again but maybe this club the manager and the team sometimes we need a defeat because we always win everything, in the Bundesliga, in Europe.
'We have started very well in the Bundesliga in the cup, we won in Manchester. You always think everything is easy, but Europe is very difficult so maybe it is good for us for Maracech next Saturday.

Mishap: Pellegrini brought off Edin Dzeko in the closing stages and brought on Jack Rodwell

'We played really well in the first 30 minutes. Then first ten mins in second half Manchester City were better than us. In general we are satisfied for Bayern.
'I hope we can see how difficult it is playing in Europe, sometimes things like this happen and we have to understand and learn our lessons from this. We have to understand how difficult it is to win all the time, so we are ready for the knockout stages.
'We have got to realise we can also lose. We are a great team, a super team but we can also lose, because the other teams are good.
'They started really well, they were really focussed. But if you are not in control of the game... the passes between our players were not good, we must use the ball better and do something with it.
'Manchester City are not a bad team, you cannot score against them with just 2-3 touches.
'They shot 4 times on our go, in the first 15 minutes of the second half they were better than us, just that little period, maybe we were level for the last 15 of the first half. The rest of the time we were better.'

THIS ISN'T THE FIRST TIME IT'S HAPPENED TO CITY... REWIND TO 1996

A similar incident resulted in Manchester City's relegation in the 1995-96 season, with Alan Ball in charge at Maine Road.
Battling against relegation and playing Liverpool on the final day of the season, City conceded two own-goals before drawing level through Uwe Rosler and Kit Symons.
World Cup winner Ball knew his side needed to do better than Southampton and Coventry to survive - so when he got word that Wimbledon were beating Saints late on he instructed City to play out time.
Steve Lomas was playing keep ball near the corner flag when the recently substituted Niall Quinn ran out of the tunnel to tell his team-mates otherwise - Wimbledon were not winning.
But it was too late to find a winner, and City were relegated. Ball (below) left the club three games into the following season in Division One.

GERARD BRAND