Manchester City’s Vincent Kompany demands encore at Bayern Munich

Posted Tuesday, September 16, 2014 by theguardian.com

· Kompany ‘up for challenge’ of Champions League opener
· City captain takes heart from December’s 3-2 win in Germany

Vincent Kompany believes his Manchester City side can again prove superior to Bayern Munich.

Vincent Kompany says that Manchester City are fortified by their stunning victory at Bayern Munich last season as they prepare to get their latest Champions League campaign under way with another visit to the German champions on Wednesday.

City won 3-2 at the Allianz Arena in December, having been 2-0 down, in what was the final tie of the group. Had they scored again they would have advanced as the winners and, perhaps, got an easier draw in the last 16. As it was, they were paired with Barcelona and lost.

Manuel Pellegrini, the City manager, admitted that he got his sums wrong on the night in Bavaria, believing his team needed two more goals to top the group instead of one. He withdrew the influential David Silva and left Sergio Agüero as an unused substitute. The miscalculation dominated the headlines but Kompany, the City captain, has not forgotten how his team had the measure of Bayern. “This is the first game of the Champions League, an away game against one of the hardest teams to play in the world right now,” Kompany said. “But we should take confidence out of the last game we played in Munich. We’re up for the challenge.”

City, who face Chelsea at home in the Premier League on Sunday, have a tough Champions League group, which is completed by Roma and CSKA Moscow who, coincidentally, were also in their section last season.

Pellegrini said: “Bayern are the most strong team but my team has a great personality to try to win everywhere. We showed that against Arsenal [on Saturday].

“Last season, we lost three early away games to Cardiff, Aston Villa and Chelsea but we went on to beat Bayern in Munich and I think we were the team who won the most away points in the second round of the Premier League. We have the personality to try to play everywhere in the same way. If we continue like this, it will be a very close game against Bayern.”