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
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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.