Kompany poised for City return

Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany is poised to return to action in his side’s opening Group D game against Viktoria Plzen in the Czech Republic.

Manager Manuel Pellegrini had previously expressed confidence the Belgium international could return for next weekend’s derby against Manchester United and now it seems he could be back sooner.

Despite that, Pellegrini said he will not take any unnecessary risks with his key defender.

“We will see if he is 100%,” said Pellegrini. “If he is, of course he will play. We will talk with the doctor and decide. I think he will be 100%, but if he is not he will not play. We have a very important match but we have other players if any are not 100%.”

Kompany was badly missed as City suffered a shock loss to promoted Cardiff in their second Barclays Premier League game of the season. Since then they have kept two clean sheets but questions have been asked of their injury-hit defence, most notably in Saturday’s goalless draw at Stoke.

Micah Richards, Gael Clichy and Martin Demichelis are also sidelined. Despite that, Pellegrini has played down the significance of his captain’s absence. He said: “Vincent is a very important player for us. He has been injured for about one month.

“But without Vincent, except for the game against Cardiff, the defence played very well. We have had three clean sheets. Vincent is very important but we have a squad. We have replacements for any player who is injured.”

City are anxious to get off to a winning start as they bid to finally make an impact in the Champions League at the third attempt.

City failed to win their opening games in either of their two previous campaigns, both of which ended prematurely at the group stage.

Pellegrini’s previous record in the Champions League, having taken both Villarreal and Malaga to the latter stages, was one of the key factors in his appointment this summer and hopes are high of progress this time.

But the Chilean, who celebrated his 60th birthday yesterday, said: “Of course we have to win this game. It is very important to start the group winning the first game. But the Champions League is never easy. If we think we have weak teams in our group we are making a big mistake.”

Pellegrini made six changes at Stoke, five of them tactical, and watched in frustration as his team failed to break down the Potters.

Stoke boss Mark Hughes suggested City may have paid the price for prioritising the Champions League trip but Pellegrini insisted there were many reasons for his selection.

He said: “I changed some players last Saturday for a lot of things. I think that was the best team we could play against Stoke.”