Viktoria Plzen v Man City, Champions League Group D, 7.45pm BST Tue 17 SeptManchester City's Manuel Pellegrini hopeful of Kompany boost in Plzen• Captain Vincent Kompany could return from groin injury
• City have never won opening Champions League game
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The Guardian, Monday 16 September 2013 21.23 BST
Manchester City's Vincent Kompany has been able to take part in training at Viktoria Plzen's Doosran Arena. Photograph: John Sibley/Action Images
As Manuel Pellegrini begins his quest to lead Manchester City to the Champions League knockout stage for the first time in the club's history he hopes to have the welcome fillip of a fit-again Vincent Kompany for Tuesday night's opening Group D match with Viktoria Plzen at the Doosan Arena.

A final decision on the captain will be made on Tuesday, as the Chilean plots to do what City have failed to achieve in their two previous tilts at the competition.

Kompany will return ahead of schedule if he plays after suffering a groin injury in City's 4-0 defeat of Newcastle United on 19 August and Pellegrini said: "Vincent worked with us normally over the last two days. We will see tomorrow if he is 100% and speak with the doctor but, if he is fit, of course he will play. He is a very important player for us. He has been injured for a month and, except the game at Cardiff [which City lost 3-2], the defence did very well in the other three games. We are in a strong position to be able to replace any player who is injured.

"I think he will be ready but, if he is not, he will not play. This is an important match, we have a lot of good players, so I won't select players who are not 100% fit."

Should Kompany fail to make it, Joleon Lescott can expect to take his place alongside Matija Nastasic as City attempt to win an opening group match at last. Pellegrini said: "We have to win this game. It is very important to start with a win. We try but we are playing against a strong team."

City hope to end an unwanted sequence started by the 1-1 draw with Napoli two years ago and followed by the despair of a 3-2 reverse to José Mourinho's Real Madrid, when Roberto Mancini's team snatched defeat from the jaws of famous victory by conceding two late goals to lose 3-2 at the Bernabéu. The manner of that defeat – a duck by Kompany left Joe Hart exposed for Cristiano Ronaldo's winner – was the tone-setter for a miserable campaign. Mancini publicly berated Hart in the post-match briefing to initiate a season-long unrest that ended with the Italian being sacked and being replaced by Pellegrini.

The Chilean was headhunted to solve the two faults the club grandees identified in Mancini: a volatile temperament and an odd failure to thrive against the continent's aristocrats.

At Lazio, Internazionale and then City, Mancini's best return was a quarter-final with the middle of those three clubs. In contrast Pellegrini's Champions League CV features a semi-final with the less heralded Villarreal in 2006 and a quarter-final last season in charge of Málaga, when the Spanish club were only two Borussia Dortmund stoppage-time strikes away from progressing further.

Pellegrini says it is difficult to explain his success. "It is my fifth year in the Champions League and I am very happy about my last campaigns. It is not easy to make it with a team like Villarreal and reach the semi-finals. The same happened with Málaga when we managed to make it into the quarter-finals. The most important aspect is to make the players feel that they have the capacity, and feel the confidence to compete against teams at the same level, considering all the tactical aspects.

"But I have always repeated the same sentence to my players: 'If we are eliminated in the Champions League, then it is because we faced a team that was superior to us and who played better than us.' Not because they faced a bad-playing team, [and were] eliminated without any efforts from our side. I think that this helped the players a bit, to let them feel that they have their qualities as well."

While Mancini would argue hebenefited from zero luck with the clubs City faced in his two campaigns – as well as the Spanish champions, Real, Ajax and the Dutch title holders' German counterparts, Borussia Dortmund, were also in last year's group – Pellegrini is quick to advise wariness regarding a section that also includes Bayern Munich and CSKA Moscow.

"I think that all groups are difficult," he said. "It would be a big mistake to think that playing a team with less history in Europe would be easier to play. One thing is sure that last season when the draw took place, Milan and Zenit St Petersburg were happy to be drawn against Málaga. And they felt they'd already qualified for the next round. But Málaga then went on to win the group.

"So it is the same now, this season. We can't be satisfied with the names of the teams we will face but we will qualify if we play well."

Hart, Zabaleta, Kompany (C), Nastasic, Kolarov, Navas, Toure, Fernandinho, Nasri, Aguero, Dzeko

That team looks fine if you could be guarantee yaya will put in a shift, If he doesn't we'll be under quite a bit of pressure. This is the french fillys big chance to show us he's worthy of the shirt! Anyway I'm cautiously optimistic tonight.

ive met nial quinn ive worshiped him and shook his hand..
right now today 20 years later he can go and fuck right off the prick...

'semi onslaught'...what the fuck is he watching...

they have had a go and some chances, but onslaught...what a prick..
we have grown into the match, and have really had some cracking chances and should be 2 up atleast....

quinn, fuckoff...