Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini believes his team can still win the Champions League this season.
 | Manchester City | 1-2 Manchester | CSKA Moscow |  |
 | FC Bayern | 2-0 Munich | AS Roma |  |
 | Paris St-Germain | 1-0 Paris | APOEL |  |
 | Ajax | 0-2 Amsterdam | Barcelona |  |
 | Sporting Lisbon | 3-1 Lisbon | Schalke 04 |  |
 | Maribor | 1-1 Maribor | Chelsea |  |
 | Shakhtar Donetsk | 3-0 Donetsk | BATE |  |
 | Athletic Bilbao | 0-2 Bilbao | FC Porto |  |
The Premier League champions have again made an underwhelming start in the competition, collecting just two points from their opening three games in Group E.
They are already seven points behind group leaders Bayern Munich and can ill afford to drop more as they host CSKA Moscow at the Etihad Stadium tonight, but while there is a danger City could fail to get out of the group for a third time in four seasons, Pellegrini is not entertaining negative thoughts and has not ruled out a shot at glory.
The Chilean said: "Our target is always to try to win the Champions League. We must put in our mind that we are able to do it.
"Maybe there are five or six squads better than our squad, or at the same level, that also want to do it, but with a winning mentality and an ambitious mind, you must always think you can do it. I think we have time to prove it."
City will at least be aiming to improve on last season's effort when they reached the last 16 for the first time after two previous failures to get out of the group.
Pellegrini said: "This team is doing very well here in domestic games because in the last three years we won two Premier Leagues and one runner-up and won two cups also. So, you must add international games with the Champions League.
"Last year we did one stage more than the other years. I hope that this year we are going to continue improving."
City need to beat Russian champions CSKA to breathe some life into their campaign, but Pellegrini is not treating it as win or bust.
Anything less than victory would further complicate matters though and take City's destiny out their hands, but Bayern's dominance of the group thus far does suggest the battle for second spot will be close.
Pellegrini said: "It is a very important game, but it is not a 'death' game because until mathematics can't fix it, you can continue.
"We must win this game because we have just two points and we have three games to play and it is very important to have more points, but we will consider it not a final game but a very, very important game."
Pellegrini expects the issue to go down to the final round of fixtures, when City face a testing trip to face Roma.
He said: "We are going to try to win our two games at home and see what the other teams do but I am sure this will be decided in the last game."
Pellegrini was dismissive of suggestions that his team might lack confidence.
He said: "I don't think so. Last year we were the club that qualified with the biggest amount of points for a group runner-up - 15 points. What happened this year in the three games of Champions League, we have time to arrange it and I am sure we are going to arrange it."
This interactive tournament guide includes details of all fixtures and includes live results and statistics. The fixtures "Overview" (button at top right) goes to a fixture page detailing the dates for every fixture in the season. Click on the club crest to select all the fixtures for a particular team. The fixture gives the location and the time each match is due to start.
Matchtrackers can be seen by clicking on any fixture. Before a match the tracker shows the team lineup or squad and head-to-head statistics. During the match there are two pages of live data - one showing a timeline of key events in the match as they happen -- goals, substitutions, red and yellow cards. The other, Live Statistics, shows possession, shots on target, fouls against and saves.
SOURCE : belfasttelegraph.co.uk
SOURCE : belfasttelegraph.co.uk
