Out but not down.

City are out of the Champions League, just in case you didn't already know. But you know what? I'm not too disappointed. Of course I would have liked to see the club go a little further in the competition but all things considered we hardly embarrassed ourselves.

I could complain that it was Villarreal's inability to beat an egg that took us out of the competition, but ultimately it was our first game against Napoli which has turned out to be the game that bit City in the backside. City created enough chances to kill that game off, hitting the woodwork twice in the process. One swift counter attack lead by Maggio and a goal by Cavanni made the group that much more difficult.

A lot of fans of other teams may say City should be embarrassed about going out of the Champions League at this stage but let's face it, we had the toughest group in the competition for any of the 'favourites' to win it. City also got the 10 points that are usually enough to qualify with. No less than 6 other teams went through with 10 points or less this season.

The only team that should really be embarrassed about not qualifying for the knock out stage is Manchester United. They had one of, if not the easiest of groups to qualify from. Their fans were, as usual, arrogantly mocking City for going out of the Champions League early before a ball was kicked last night. The saying 'pride comes before a fall' springs to mind, as they really did crash out after losing 2-1 to Basel.

Disgusting, disgraceful, shocking, pathetic, and sack the manager were all things that were said after their defeat to Basel. In contrast to their complete lack of grace the general feeling among City fans is rather more aquiesce with "oh well, there's always next year." And that's right, the focus was never on the Champions League this season as I have said before, and indeed Sheikh Mansour also stated the same thing. Yes it's disappointing, but hardly the end of the world.

Whether Mancini makes a real effort at the Europa League is yet to be seen, however he has already said as much and if his previous character is anything to go by he will indeed want to win it regardless of how others perceive the value of the competition. At the end of the day it is a trophy and if it came down to it if you asked any fan of any club whether they would rather end the season with a piece of silverware or not, I'm sure they would say they would want something over nothing.

And there we see yet again a difference in class between the two Manchester Clubs (albeit in name only). Patrice Evra has already stated that it is an embarrassment to play in the Europa League, and Alex Ferguson has described it as their punishment for not qualifying. I'm sorry, but how arrogant can you be?

Mancini on the other hand said "I am very disappointed we are out of the Champions League. But I think we now need to concentrate on trying to win the Europa League because it will be good for this club if we can get to the final and win it."

No doubt in the next day or two we will see statements from Karl-Heinze Rummenigge and Aurelio De Laurentiis who have both been hugely outspoken against City this season. My only hope is that they both go out in the next round, not because I hate those teams, because I can't stand either the self obsessed, self promoting, lying toss pots that run both clubs. Hopefully City will meet them at some point in the not so distant future and stuff them both.

City now have a tough couple of fixtures in the league, starting away at Chelsea this weekend followed by Arsenal at the Etihad 6 days later. Both will be tough games in which City need concentrate for the full 90 minutes, especially as both London clubs are starting to click. Come on City!



Twitter: @MikeWalsh1880
Facebook: David Silva's Left Foot

The end of the world, apparently.

The sky is falling, the apocalypse draws near, the end is nigh, blah blah blah. The papers were waiting for us to slip up in an important game and must have been rubbing their grubby little phone tapping hands together with glee at the thought of City not qualifying for the knock out stages. City still do have a chance of qualifying of course, but it means City must beat Bayern at the Etihad and Villarreal need at least a draw when Napoli visit.

That oracle of insight the Daily Star even hinted at Mancini facing the sack with their headline! Absolutely laughable after the record breaking start to the Premier League season City have enjoyed. It's not as though we were played off the park either as City had more chances and the lion's share of possession. Here are the match stats.

• Corners: Napoli 3 - 5 City
• Shots: Napoli: 13 - 17 City
• On Target: Napoli 5 - 8 City
• Fouls: Napoli 10 - 11 City
• Offsides: Napoli 1 - 2 City
• Possession: Napoli 30% - 70% City

We weren't exactly run off the park were we? Both sides could have scored more, but both keepers did well to keep the scores down as much as they did.

So it wasn't our night, along with a few other nights in Europe this season, hardly an incident of apocalyptic proportions. Yes mistakes were made by a few players and many will question the team selection but what is done is done. Whether Mancini got it right or wrong, he's the one being paid to make those decisions and after what he's delivered so far I think he's earned a little slack from the media and over-excitable fans. But looking at those match stats it doesn't appear he got anything all that wrong.

So what if City don't qualify for the knock out stages? Well I'll be disappointed, as will the squad and everyone else at the club, but I wont be decrying the team a failure and demanding the resignation of the manager in the morning.

Lets have a little perspective here, we didn't get rinsed by some unheard of backwater team from the middle of nowhere comprised of players that make their main earnings from being butchers and plumbers. I hate to mention 'them' but look at United's group, and have they qualified yet? The self professed "World's greatest club" have struggled to get a foot hold in the easiest group in the whole competition and could still fail to qualify if they don't get a result against those Swiss 'giants' Basel, who they only managed to draw against at the swamp.

Although the Champions League is important it is not the be all and end all. Winning it was never the priority this season. Ok we might fall short of projected achievements but so what? That's happened before and we've come back stronger and more hungry to succeed the next time.

Keep calm and carry on.





Twitter: @MikeWalsh1880
Facebook: David Silva's Left Foot

Mancini: "We need one win"

Tomorrow (or today depending on when and where you're reading this), as Mancini would say, is important. It's important that City get a win against Villareal as failure to do so would mean it would leave City hanging on the results of every other side in every other game left in 'the group of death'.

It's certainly not how we all hoped our first foray into Europe's elite would go so far, but we've not exactly embarrassed ourselves either, but 1 point from a possible 6 is certainly not championship winning form.

Mancini is certainly well aware of the task at hand, speaking in the pre-match press conference;

"We need one win to get our Champions League campaign going."

"Villareal will be hard but we can win this game and it will make a difference in the group."

With either one of Napoli or Bayern dropping points against each other as a draw seems quite unlikely given the abilities of each it's imperative City capitalise while they can. I suspect Bobby has been steeling the lads since the Villa game judging by what he says next;

"Villareal are a very experienced Champions League side and it is important that we take three points no matter how we do it."

No matter how we do it eh? Three points at all costs is what City need right now in the Champions League.

"I think we need ten points to go to the next stage and to achieve that we need to win on Tuesday night."

Well we're on one point right now with another twelve left to play for, you do the math. Of course we may be able to qualify with less than ten but as I have already mentioned, that would leave City hoping for other results to go their way, something that City have had to do all to often in the past.

Perhaps thankfully Villareal are sitting at the bottom of the group after losing their first two games. They're also thirteenth in La Liga having only won one of their seven games so far. They're certainly not a team in form at the moment.

All this means though is that the fixture has turned into one of those potential banana skin games. Lets hope City don't slip up.


MikeWalsh1880

Match Review - Manchester City v Napoli

Last night the Champions League finally came to the City of Manchester as City and Napoli took their first steps into Europe's biggest competition in its current format.

City created enough chances to kill off the game but the lads rarely got a shot on target with only 1 in every 6 shots heading for the back of the net. That is partly down to the pressure from Napoli's defence but you have to expect better, Mancini expects better. Only Kolarov's free kick in the 2nd half saved City's blushes.

Kolarov also had his nose broken in the first half which is surprising seeing Zabaleta was on the pitch. It's usually the Argentinian who  sticks his face on someone's elbow or boot and walks away bloodied and bandaged at the end of the game.

One thing Mancini did point out was that in the first half the lads were "guilty of taking one touch too many" and he is exactly right. City's front 4 tried to be a little too elaborate and the Italian defence did well to put the pressure on them in and around the box.

It was never going to be an easy game, and the Italian side was, A very well organised defence and played on the break. Napoli's pace on the counter though was quite simply rapid and it caught out City's defence on more than one occasion. City can take solace in the fact that the combination of Hamsik, Cavani and Lavezzi can be matched by only a hand full of teams even in the Champions League. And they came through it relatively unscathed.

There were a few mistakes through the duration of the game though, and they could have potentially ended the match on another day. Thankfully Napoli probably had as many nerves on the night as City did and they failed to capitalise on all but one of them.

Mancini noted that players seemed nervous before kick off, and I can't blame them. It was City's first time in the Champions League and they had the expectation of the club and the fans firmly on their shoulders. Even though most of them had experience in the competition, for a few players a mixture of nerves and excitement got the better of them a couple of times. Although the lads didn't play badly, they know for sure they can play better than that and will take a lot away from this game.

As an overall performance I'd give the squad a 6.5, good but could do better and must learn from the mistakes they made during the game. Thankfully the players are well aware of their abilities and where they could have done better with Vincent Kompany telling mcfc.co.uk "We tried to do things too well and too quick and to be honest that's what cost us on the goal. I think we'll just learn from this game and we have a good enough team to see us through." 

It was a fair result in the end and hopefully we'll see a more assured performance in Germany.

Champions League Group Draw

Manchester City now know who they will be facing in their first venture into Champions League football. City were drawn with Bayern Munich, Villarreal and Napoli in group A.

The games against Bayern will have a little more meaning with Jerome Boateng leaving City this summer for the German giants, citing that he wanted to play in the centre of defence to help his international prospects.

Interestingly enough (or maybe not) none of the teams in group A finished higher than 3rd in their respective leagues last season, which are all considered the top 4 leagues in Europe, making it quite possibly the most competitive and open group this time round.

The full group listings are as follows;

Group A

• Bayern Munich
• Villarreal
• Manchester City
• Napoli

Group B

• Inter Milan
• CSKA Moskva
• Lille
• Trabzonspor

Group C

• Manchester United
• Benfica
• Basel
• Otelul

Group D

• Real Madrid
• Lyon
• Ajax
• Dinamo Zagreb

Group E

• Chelsea
• Valencia
• Leverkusen
• Genk

Group F

• Arsenal
• Marseille
• Olympiacos
• Dortmund

Group G

• Porto
• Shakhtar
• Zenit
• APOEL

Group H

• Barcelona
• AC Milan
• BATE
• Plzen