Bayern's Robben expected tougher competition from Manchester City

Arjen Robben celebrates scoring against Manchester City

Bayern Munich’s Dutch winger Arjen Robben has poured salt into Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini’s wounds and stated that the English club were “easy” to defeat, BBC Sport reports.

The defending Champions League winners overcame Manchester City with Frank Ribery, Thomas Muller and Robben finding the back of the net at the Etihad Stadium. The end result was 3-1.

Robben said: “We were so dominant against a big team in Europe. We didn’t expect an easy game like that.

“It is a compliment to our team but we expected more from City.”

In spite of being reduced to ten men with the sending off of Jerome Boateng, the German champions still managed to enjoy 66% of possession. Alvaro Negredo scored the only goal for City against Pep Guardiola’s team.

He said: “The first 70 minutes we played some terrific football.

“We didn’t give them any space, we pressed them right up to the goalkeeper and they just kicked it away. Sometimes they gave us too much space and we use space well.

“City weren’t as organised defensively as we had expected but there were some attacks of ours that simply were fantastically executed

“When things go your way like that, it’s a lot of fun out on the pitch, especially against a quality team like City.”

Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini laid the blame on the whole team instead of goal keeper Joe Hart who gave his poorest performance of the season. The England international was bested by Robben and Ribery and could have done more to keep them at bay.

“I will talk about the team, not individuals,” Pellegrini said.

“We played really bad, it’s not the team we’ve seen every week in the Premier League and I think that was the worst thing.

“We didn’t have possession and we didn’t do enough to have more.

“The difference between City and Bayern Munich may not be what we saw here. There are a lot of reasons why this happened and it’s important for me to find solutions to that.”