Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has urged his players to show some fight against Barcelona this week after their shock 2-1 FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Wigan Athletic.
The loss has ended City’s hopes of a quadruple and echoes the result of last year’s final, where the Latics triumphed over the Blues at Wembley 1-0.
Pellegrini has demanded more from his players ahead of this Wednesday’s Champions League game with Barcelona as they look to overturn a 2-0 deficit.
“It’s a game we are losing 2-0 – it’s a difficult game and we must show a reaction from tomorrow morning onwards,” he said.
“We must try to win in Barcelona and then we must try to reach the top of the table with our three games in hand.
“We finished one trophy and we won it, now we have to continue playing Champions League and Premier League as we have a lot to fight for.”
The 60-year-old bemoaned the fact that City were slow throughout the first half which gave Wigan the opportunity to go in front through a Jordi Gomez penalty on 27 minutes.
James Perch capitalised on a mistake to double the away side’s lead immediately after the break before the Citizens managed a consolation goal from Samir Nasri on 68 minutes.
After a hectic week of international duties for most of the City squad, Pellegrini opted to rest some of his key players but denied this was because of the make-or-break game in Spain.
“I didn’t leave Kompany or Kolarov or Fernandinho on the bench because of Barcelona,” he insisted.
“We make rotation in the cups, plus the players we left out played 90 minutes for their international sides on Wednesday, so it was important for them to have a rest.”
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