Manuel Pellegrini, the Manchester City manager, is adamant that his team will fight to the end to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
City will host Bayern Munich in a crucial group match tonight knowing anything but victory could effectively end their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages.
The Barclays Premier League side have claimed just two points from four games in Group E and will be eliminated from the contest should they fail to beat Bayern and there is a winner in the game between CSKA Moscow and Roma. Scenarios do exist where City could progress without beating the Germans but the English side really have little margin for error.
City began their European campaign with high hopes and were intent on building on last season's progress to the last 16. The club's failure to make any apparent headway has invited criticism and scrutiny of Pellegrini but the Chilean remains confident that his players can still succeed.
"I don't think there is an extra pressure [on me]," said the City manager. "I think it is important for this club to try to continue in Europe because it is one of our targets, to improve every year and on what we did last year. [Tonight] we will see the team fighting until the end to continue in the Champions League and I hope we can do it."
Pellegrini claims he takes no notice of the people who have already written off his side. "I don't know who those people are who don't believe what we can do. I am sure this team have a lot of trust that we can do it."
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