Mancini Admits Odds Are Against City

Following their 2-1 defeat in Napoli last night, Manchester City boss Roberto Mancini has admitted that his team face an uphill battle to qualify for the knock out stages of the Champions League.

Those looking to buy soccer tickets online will note that City are currently third in their group and have to beat Bayern Munich at Eastlands next month if they are to have any chance of qualifying. Even if they do win, they need Napoli to drop points against Villareal.

Speaking about his team’s chances, the City boss said: “Our target was to go into the second stage and we are depending on other teams.”

“If Villarreal play a normal game they may still get a result. If they play a serious game we can still get to the second stage.”

“But Napoli are the favourites and life doesn’t finish if we don’t get through.”

“We have still got another match to play and if we don’t qualify we will play in the Europa League. Everything is not finished – never say never.”

As for the defeat in Italy, Mancini says he doesn’t think the Premier League leaders deserved to lose the game, even if they weren’t at their fluent best.

He continued: “We didn’t deserve to lose this game. After our equaliser we had two more chances to go 2-1 up. It is strange that we conceded this goal after 10 minutes.”

“We had other chances to score. Their keeper was fantastic and saved three or four chances, but if you lose probably you have made mistakes. We conceded two stupid goals.”

City midfielder James Milner added: “We had more than enough chances to win the game but they are a very good team and they were good on the break.”

“We gave two sloppy goals away and you can’t afford to do that in the Champions League.”

“It’s a learning curve and we have to make sure we bounce back from it. We will pick ourselves up and hope to put in a performance on Sunday.”

As Milner mentions, there is no let up for City as far as important games go. They face Liverpool at Anfield on Sunday in the pick of the weekend’s Premier League fixtures ().

It is a tough test of City’s credentials, although last time they were given a tough challenge away from home, they hammered local rivals Manchester United 6-1.

They will be hoping for more of the same this weekend as they look to recover from disappointment in Italy this week.