It was bound to happen sooner or later. Man City‘s amazing unbeaten run finally ended last night after they suffered 2-1 away defeat to Serie A club SS Napoli. The loss now means City will have to beat Bayern Munich at home in the final group game and hope that Villarreal who are yet to pick up a point in the tournament can spring a surprise and beat the Italian club.
The other English club in action yesterday also saw United miss the chance to secure qualification as they were held to a 2-2 home draw by Portuguese club Benfica.
Both Manchester clubs are staring elimination in the eye and with Chelsea and Arsenal still to play tonight, history would be made if none of the teams were to make it through to the next round of the competition.
Speaking after City’s loss to Napoli, Mancini still believes that his side can qualify to the knockout stages.
“I think we should believe because it’s not clear that Villarreal will get no points [against Napoli],” he said.
“We wanted this because it’s our mentality, but now, just because we lose this game, I don’t think it’s finished. In the Champions League this can happen, but this is football and we have another game. Never say never.”
Mancini is very right. In football, anything can happen, however, looking at their odds, it would take very hard work to see them through. After last night’s results, Bayern lead the Group A with 13 points, while second place Napoli is 5 points adrift on 8 points one ahead of Napoli.
What both teams are hoping for in the final matchday of the group stage is for a win for and a loss for their challenger. Meanwhile, at the Old Trafford, blunders from the defense were United’s undoing as Sir Alex Ferguson’s Men settled for a 2-2 draw with visiting Benfica.
Group C could not be tighter as all three clubs Benfica, United and Basel have a shot of going through to the next round. Only a single point separates Benfica and United from Basel.
Sir Alex Ferguson who said that United deserved a better result also acknowledging that all hope was not lost for his side.
“We didn’t get enough time to be in the lead, but we played so well tonight, we made a lot of great chances and played some really good football, I’m not faulting my players at all, they deserved better.”
The most important thing for United is to qualify even if they come through in second place.. Everyone will be eagerly awaiting the final group matches in the next 2 weeks.
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