Manchester City will take on the strongest contender in Group D, FC Bayern Munich, of the UEFA Champions League.

City received a shocking 3-2 defeat from Aston Villa FC on Saturday in the Premier League.

Goals from Yaya Toure and Edin Dzeko were not enough to stop the improving Villa side.

Blues boss Manuel Pellegrini is expecting his squad to make up for their shortcomings and redeem themselves against Bayern.

"Of course I'm expecting a big response from the players [after Saturday's defeat], I always expect that," Pellegrini told uefa.com.

Pellegrini remains optimistic that they will be able to overcome the Bundesliga giants despite weekend defeat and believes that his team is has the quality to surpass Bayern.

"We know Bayern are strong but we're in good form too and can take the points here. "

"I think we need to play at our best and be consistent for 90 minutes, knowing that if we make any errors we can expect to concede from them - so concentration is very important. I think that good players must 'appear' in big games and whoever appears will be key."

He emphasised that the game is not all about the managers but the players.

"Again, I'll repeat, it's not me versus Pep, it's Manchester City versus Bayern. Pep is a great manager and he's at a great club. It's not easy to improve on what they achieved last year, but somehow he will try and bring to Bayern all the characteristics he brought to Barcelona."

David Silva will finally suit-up after recovering from his thigh injury.

Meanwhile, Bayern boss Josep Guardiola thinks that City are just experiencing minor bumps because of the influx of new players as well as a new manager in Pellegrini.

"City are one of the biggest teams in Europe: I'm confident they will get through this time. I know the coach and some of their players, like Silva, [Jesús] Navas and [Álvaro] Negredo, while Yaya Touré was with me at Barcelona. But they also have other great players such as [Joe] Hart and [Vincent] Kompany," said Guardiola.

Guardiola revealed the void in midfield stating that he finds it hard to make Bayern play at a consistent basis with only one man highly capable of manning the middle.

"We need to try and play well regularly, but it's impossible to find consistency with only one midfielder: Toni Kroos," he added.

"That's why I'm lucky to have Lahm who could come in and play that position, while it's important players like [Mario] Götze, Javi Martínez, Basti [Schweinsteiger] and Thiago [Alcántara] are all coming back now. I'm so happy my team have been managing to win games without midfielders: you can still win games with the right strikers and defenders but you can't play well without midfielders."

Mario Gotze and Bastian Schweinsteiger are available but may have to come off the bench as they regain their form.

Schedule and Free Live Online Streaming (Link will be provided an hour before kick-off):

Oct 3, 2013 - 4:45 am (AEST)

LINK