Manchester City's Edin Dzeko says: 'I’m happy to be back because I was never actually injured so long [a month].' Photograph: Phil Noble/Reuters
Edin Dzeko has vowed to fill the void left by the injured Sergio Agüero and be the hero in Manchester City’s final Champions League group game against Roma at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday night.
If City win against Rudi García’s side and better CSKA Moscow’s result at Bayern Munich then next year’s knockout phase will be reached. But they will be without Agüero, who has scored 19 goals in 21 appearances, after the Argentinian suffered knee ligament damage in Saturday’s win over Everton.
Manuel Pellegrini said at Tuesday’s pre-match press conference that Agüero would be out for four to six weeks, although City’s manager later voiced fears that the layoff could be as long as eight weeks.
Dzeko is not 100% match-fit following a calf injury but should start and has a history of important strikes. When City claimed the title in 2011-12 he scored a 90th-minute equaliser in the final match against Queens Park Rangers before Agüero’s added-time winner. Last season Dzeko registered nine goals in City’s last 11 matches to help push the team to the championship.
Asked if he could again be the hero for Pellegrini’s side against Roma, the Bosnian said: “I’m there when the team needs me and first of all I’m happy to be back because I was never actually injured so long [a month] – it was a bit hard for me but now I’m back and I’ll do my best to try and score the goals and bring something good to the team.
“I did [score big goals] but that’s past now and we have to look to the future, and like I said I always try to do my job and my job is to score goals and I will keep scoring them I’m sure if I keep healthy.”
Dzeko’s first appearance since 8 November was as a substitute on Saturday, after 63 minutes. “I expected even less than 30 minutes; I was saying 15 minutes would be OK for me just to get back on the pitch and I already played 30. The feeling was OK but I still need some more games to come back,” he said.
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On whether he can play all of the match against Rome, Dzeko said: “Against Everton definitely not but Wednesday, who knows? We still have days [of] training so I will be better by Wednesday.”
Vincent Kompany, David Silva, Stevan Jovetic and Fernandinho, who had been doubtful, trained on Monday morning so they should be available to Pellegrini on Wednesday night. Dzeko believes the high-pressure stakes in Rome can bring the best out of City who defeated Bayern Munich in Group E’s previous round which had also been a must-win game.
He said: “It’s kind of a special situation, in the league and Champions League because we were just trying to play but when we were eight points behind [Chelsea] we knew: ‘OK, now we have to start playing.’ And in the Champions League as well, we lost the game at home to CSKA and then you have to win the next game, and we won it, so maybe we need that pressure: I don’t know. It’s hard to explain.
“We will definitely try to go there and score goals because if you don’t score the goals you can’t win the games. It will be a big game for them as well – I think the atmosphere will be amazing and that’s what’s football’s about, and those kind of games we want to play.
“I played many games with the good atmosphere but actually I’m looking forward to that game because they have great fans with a big stadium so it will hopefully be a night to remember.
“Definitely confidence is high – we won five in a row. It’s better confidence, better atmosphere in the team when you’re winning the games and I think we’re coming back to our normal performances especially after our national teams’ break and hopefully we can be even better in the next week. There will be some big games, crucial games.”
Of Agüero’s injury, Dzeko said: “That was a big blow for us – you can see how he played recently for us. [But] I’m back now, Alex [Kolarov] is back now, hopefully David will be back.”
