City suffered a 2-0 friendly defeat to Dundee at Dens Park in their opening pre-season match on Sunday afternoon. Pellegrini named new signing Willy Caballero in goal in the friendly clash against the Scottish side, while new midfield signing Fernando started.
City looked bright in the opening stages but then conceded a penalty when Dedryck Boyata bundled Gary Harkins to the ground. Harkins dusted himself off to take the penalty himself and while the initial shot was saved by débutante Willy Caballero Harkins was on hand to fire home the rebound.
Jovetic came close to bagging an equaliser for City shortly afterwards as he hit the side netting, but shortly after one of the three trialists for the home side Luka Tankuli fire home after a deflection from Boyata.
Pellegrini made nine changes at the break - including the withdrawal of new signing Fernando - and City could have scored two minutes into the second period. Substitute Bruno Zuculini got his head to a cross from the right, but the Argentine failed to get enough on his close-range effort.
Apart from a half-chance from Alvaro Negredo and a Samir Nasri effort City struggled to make chances.
Pellegrini will certainly be looking for improvement in Friday's friendly against Hearts.