Soccer-Sterling not to blame for Juventus loss, says Pellegrini

Sept 16 (Reuters) - Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini has refused to blame new recruit Raheem Sterling's profligacy infront of goal for the Premier League leaders' 2-1 home loss to Juventus in the Champions League on Tuesday. Sterling, who joined City from Liverpool in the summer under controversial circumstances, was in impressive form in the Premier League and helped his side win all five games. But he was guilty of missing two good chances against Juventus and was eventually replaced in the 71st minute. "I don't think this result is just because of Raheem. We controlled the game and didn't have many problems but football is like that," Pellegrini was quoted by the British media as saying. "I expect that when we have chances we must score. The differences are very slight, especially against a strong team like Juventus. "We never want to lose here at home, we never want to lose important points, but we have 15 points more to play for," the former Real Madrid manager added. City will be hoping to get some points on board in their next Champions League group D match on Sept. 30 against Borussia Monchengladbach, who lost 3-0 to Sevilla. (Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)