The England midfielder admits the result at Villa Park was hard to take after such a dominant performance, but hopes the Blues can make up for it on Europe’s biggest stage.
“Obviously we had a big disappointment at the weekend - I don’t think any of us saw that coming during the game,” he said.
“I thought we put in a really good performance and they didn’t seem to cause us too many problems at all – apart from the three goals they scored.
“It’s something we need to look at because we can’t afford to concede three goals in matches, but from a performance point of view I think we were pretty dominant.”
Milner believes playing Bayern could be the perfect tonic to the Villa defeat.
It’s hard to imagine a tougher match to start the Blues’ home Champions League campaign, but Milner says the fact that City will have to be at their best against the Bundesliga side may be exactly what is needed.
“We’re eager to get on the field again and put things right,” he said.
When you lose a game, you just want to get back out there and bounce back straight away and we have the opportunity to do that against the European champions
...James Milner...
“We played them in pre-season and we know how strong they are and we also know how well they did last year. If we play like we did against United and Newcastle, we’ve got a great chance.
“We lost the game at the Allianz Arena but I think we played well and probably could have taken at least a draw. So I think that’s a good confidence builder and although it was in pre-season, it provides us with a great insight into how they play.
“It’s very important to try and take maximum points from our three home games. If you can take nine points and maybe get one win away from home, you’ve qualified for the next stage. So if we can win our home matches, it’s obviously a massive help.
“Bayern have players who can score from all positions, but for me Franck Ribery is the one who stands out the most. He’s got all the ability in the world, is very sharp and quick and he goes past people and scores goals.
“He has a huge influence on games, but they have a great squad, full of good players and it’s going to be a tough 90 minutes.”
