The City boss said his team worked hard for the 6-0 victory and was just as pleased that the visitors weren’t allowed a sniff at goal during a 90 minutes of pure dominance from the Blues.
Responding to Edin Dzeko’s post-match comments that he thought City had won by five goals, the Chilean quipped: “That happens sometimes! Of course, it doesn’t matter whether we scored one more or one less; what matter tonight for me was the manner of the performance which I thought was excellent.
“In football, nothing is ever certain so we can’t go to London thinking the second leg is just a formality. It’s not over, but we’ve taken a big step towards the final after tonight.”
With fortress Etihad yielding yet another huge home win, Pellegrini dismissed the thought visiting teams would arrive in fear of a mauling, adding: “I don’t think the bigger teams will be scared of coming to play us here. We have another nine Premier League game to play and I think it’s important we try not to drop any points at home. We just need to keep playing the way have been in our own stadium.
“We are not in the final yet, but we are very close and if you play football the way we have been doing I think you have a better chance of being successful. It’s important for all big teams to win every competition they are in and that’s what we are trying to do
We would be proud to go to Wembley and it would be fantastic for us to take part in the first major final of the season, but as I say, we still have a job to do
...Pellegrini..
Touching on Alvaro Negredo’s display and his second hat-trick of the campaign, he said: “I was pleased for Alvaro this evening and it would be hard for him to play much better because he scored three goals, worked very hard to win a lot of balls and he gave a very complete performance.
“I was also pleased he linked up so well with Dzeko because maybe that hasn’t always worked as well at times as it did tonight, but the more they play together, the better they get. That Alvaro is having such a good first season in England doesn’t surprise me at all because I’ve known what he is capable of after watching him for many years in Spain.”
Finally, the boss confirmed he had no major injury worries over Yaya Toure, despite taking him off in the second-half.
“I took him off as a precaution more than anything – he has some pain in his ankle but we will see how he is in the morning,” concluded the boss.
