One question would have been nagging away at Joe Hart as he prepared for a long-awaited return to Manchester City’s starting line-up. Manuel Pellegrini was belatedly giving him the chance to impress, but would rank no-hopers Viktoria Plzen?

There was little to suggest they would after previously scoring just twice in four Group D beatings but Hart needn’t have worried. He was tested, all right, and how.

A 78th-minute tap-in by substitute Alvaro Negredo put City ahead for a third time and an 89th-minute header by Edin Dzeko gave them a flattering winning margin but this was anything but straightforward. So much so that Pellegrini was moved to salute more than one face-saving stop by Hart and lambast his side for more slipshod defending that so nearly ended their slender hopes of overhauling Bayern Munich at the top of the group.

‘I didn’t expect Joe to have that much work to, and it was fortunate for us that he did it do well,’ said the City manager. ‘I was satisfied with the result but not with how we achieved it. We lacked intensity and did not play well. ‘It is one thing being an attacking team and scoring goals but you have to be able to defend as well and we did that very badly. That part of our game has to improve.’

While that may have counted as glowing praise for Hart by his manager’s normally understated standards, he will still be kept waiting to discover whether he did enough to win the vote against Swansea on Sunday.

‘From tomorrow, we will start thinking about the Premier League and how we approach the Swansea game,’ said Pellegrini. ‘I repeat, Joe did a very good performance, but only from tomorrow will we start thinking about who is best for the next game. That includes the keeper and goes right through the team.’

He may be giving nothing away, and some might consider his treatment of Hart to be on the harsh side, but there can be no doubting Pellegrini owes his troubled England keeper a debt of gratitude after a misfiring, error-strewn performance so nearly ended in acute embarrassment.

Even after their third goal from Negredo looked to have taken the fight out of Plzen, they came back once more and would have equalised yet again, but for Hart leaving his line and blocking an 80th-minute shot from Frantisek Rajtoral with his legs. After the soundest of beatings for the likes of Manchester United and Tottenham at the Etihad this season, it was a ridiculously close-run thing against opponents whose morale should have been on the floor after just two goals scored and 12 conceded in their four previous group games.

The clear-cut chances, near-misses and spectacular finishes have tended to be at one end of late but not this time, as Plzen kept taking the game to City and put Hart through a more rigorous test than he could possibly have anticipated.

That all-too-familiar scowl may have been back in place each time he fished the ball out of his net, but he had every cause for smiling contentedly after handling faultlessly and denying Daniel Kolar with a flying save midway through the second half.

Dzeko fluffed an eighth-minute chance by firing straight at the keeper and Samir Nasri lashed a swerving 25-yard shot against the bar in a lively start that suggested that City were in the mood to dish out another Spurs-style trouncing. As Pellegrini noted with a frown afterwards, another familiar City trait was beginning to emerge as defensive fallibility gave Plzen the self-belief to make a game of it.

Rajtoral burst through a gap on the right of the area and drilled a shot narrowly wide of the far post in the 27th minute and Michal Duris swept a glorious opening wastefully wide, following a cutback by Kolar just four minutes later.

A breakthrough was clearly coming, and it was just a question of which end. Sergio Aguero made sure it was in City’s favour, as he created and converted a 33rd-minute penalty for his 16th goal of a productive season.

Twisting and turning on the left of the area, the bustling striker delivered a cross that struck Rajtoral’s outstretched hand. If there was an air of inevitability about the award, the same could be said for the outcome, as Aguero stepped forward and coolly sent keeper Matus Kozacik the wrong way from the spot.

Undeterred, Plzen kept pushing forward and were level in the 43rd minute, with an unstoppable drive from Tomas Horava that must have left Hart wondering what he had walked back in to. Latching on to a Kolar pass, Horava steadied himself before lashing a shot across Hart and into the top corner from all of 25 yards

There is a sense with this City side that whatever defensive dithering threatens to undo them, they will always bounce back with as many goals as it takes and it proved the theme of an eventful second half.

Yaya Toure had only just gone on as substitute to inject some life into his side’s flagging forays when he teed up Jesus Navas for a cross that the impressive Nasri turned in from close range to restore City’s lead in the 65th minute.

To the delight of any neutral observers, but utter dismay of Pellegrini, City were promptly pegged back again as Kolar slipped the ball through for Stanislav Tecl to fire an angled drive past Hart in the 69th minute. Negredo and Dzeko finally saw Plzen off, but it had been close. Too close for Pellegrini’s liking.

—Daily Mail