Alvaro Negredo and Edin Dzeko maintained Manchester City's hopes of winning Group D ahead of Bayern Munich alive by scoring the goals that earned this hard-earned victory over Viktoria Plzen.
With a place in the last 16 already secured, City were unusually below par at home and were twice pegged back by the Czechs. Sergio Aguero and Samir Nasri had twice put Manuel Pellegrini's men ahead but Tomas Horava and Stanislav Tecl responded, before Negredo and Dzeko finally clinched the three points in the last 12 minutes.
Pellegrini had made seven changes for the match - including restoring England goalkeeper Joe Hart - but it required the late introduction of Negredo to finally tilt the game their way. Dzeko, who had laboured for little reward, put the game beyond doubt in the last minute, setting up a potential group decider with Bayern in Bavaria next month. "I think it would help to come top in the group," said midfielder James Milner. "It will be tough out there but hopefully we can go out there and give Bayern Munich a game and see what happens."
The victory was all that City required but the performance of some of the players brought in, and the defence in general, will be a cause for concern for Pellegrini. City started brightly before some all-too-familiar sloppiness at the back, in the continued absence of captain Vincent Kompany, allowed Plzen to grow in confidence. But on the issue of Hart's return, after five games on the bench, the goalkeeper could at least be pleased with his efforts after making a couple of good saves.
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