Manuel Pellegrini has said that Barcelona be afraid to play his Manchester City side

They say the world’s best coaches only look forwards, never backwards, and on Monday Manuel  Pellegrini anticipated a daunting Champions League tie with Barcelona by getting firmly on the front foot.

It will be a while before Manchester City’s manager is allowed to forget his failure to realise his team needed just one more goal — rather than two — to overhaul Bayern Munich at the top of their qualifying group as they led the European champions 3-2 in Bavaria last week.

Nevertheless, Pellegrini knows he has a team that can inflict brutal damage on just about anybody —especially at home — and the Chilean reflected on City’s pairing with Barcelona in Monday’s last-16 draw with something approaching rare bombast.

Bring it on! Manuel Pellegrini has said that Barcelona be afraid to play his Manchester City side

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‘They (Barcelona) will be very concerned also,’ he said. ‘Not only because we beat Bayern Munich. They know Manchester City is a strong team and it will be difficult.

‘Also, Barcelona is not the team it was two years ago. They changed three managers in the last three years, maybe the performance of the players is not the same, the players are older. They continue to be a very good team. But two years ago they were more unbeatable than today.’

City and their fans prefer to reflect on the fact they won in Munich last week rather than their manager’s apparent arithmetic issues. Last week’s victory had the smell of a landmark win and the six goals City subsequently pumped past Arsenal in the Barclays Premier League on Saturday only strengthened the feeling that the current team can beat anybody on their day.

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As somebody pointed out to Pellegrini, City may benefit from playing the first leg at home. Pellegrini’s team have scored 50 goals in 12 home games this season and anything approaching their astonishing average of more than four a game would worry  Barcelona ahead of the return tie.

Pellegrini added: ‘I suppose they know about that record but you can’t always expect to score five, six, seven goals at home.

‘We always try — that’s why I am not concerned about what  happened in Germany. It’s an important record and we’ll try to keep it up. Being at home first could be an advantage. Here and in Barcelona will be very close games.’

Confirmation that City forward Sergio Aguero faces at least a month out with a calf injury will not have pleased Pellegrini ahead of a busy festive period which could see the Argentine miss 10 games.

    
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Aguero will be back for the Champions League, though, and Pellegrini didn’t rule out buying players in the January transfer window when asked specifically about his  goalkeeping situation.

Monday’s draw was certainly kindest to City’s neighbours United, who were rewarded for a first-place finish in their group with a tie against Olympiacos. Like City, the Greeks have a formidable record at home but there is no reason why a United side likely to be bolstered by January signings will not approach the tie with confidence.

Chelsea will also be satisfied after being paired with Galatasaray, a tie that sees coach Roberto Mancini return to England with the Turkish team for the first time and will also see Didier Drogba back at Stamford Bridge. The ex-Chelsea striker said: ‘I’m the luckiest man in this competition. In both games I’ll be at home!’

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Chelsea secretary David Barnard added: ‘Didier will get a fantastic reception. We hope that when he soaks up that adulation he’ll be too tired to play.’

Arsenal’s clash with champions Bayern Munich is also eagerly anticipated, though club secretary David Miles said: ‘We always seem to get the rough end of the draw but we’re optimistic. We ran them very close last year and only lost on  away goals.’

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