Wednesday, 7th November, 2012
"It’s finished" Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini has declared after his side could not beat Ajax last night in the Champions League, drawing 2-2.
The English champions came into the clash at the Etihad Stadium with only one point from their first three Champions League group games and needed to take revenge on the Dutch giants for a 3-1 defeat suffered in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
Indeed, the common consensus was that Manchester City needed to win all their three remaining group games to have any chance of reaching the Round of 16 – but now the most points they can reach in the section is eight.
And with group leaders Borussia Dortmund already on that total, while Real Madrid have seven points, Mancini has called time on the Citizens’ unlikely push for a qualifying berth.
"It’s finished", Mancini told his club’s official site.
"I always believe in my team but now I think it is very difficult.
"If we win two games, get eight points and go through, we can win the Champions League, it’s simple – if our destiny is this then we should win the Champions League.
relatedNewsStory"We had a chance to win in the Bernabeu but we made some mistakes, against Ajax away it was the same, we didn’t play well but we took the lead and had two chances to score the second goal but we didn’t take the chances.
"It was the same thing tonight, but it’s finished."
Manchester City will now have to turn their focus to avoiding finishing bottom of the group and so exiting Europe altogether.
With Ajax on four points, while the Citizens only have two, even that looks a tall order on the side’s current form.
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