It was not a good night in Europe for sides of Manchester and both City and United are in real danger of not qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League.
City have the harder route to the knockout stages after they lost 2-1 in Napoli. Edinson Cavani showed why he has drawn so much interest from all the top European clubs as he scored two goals and was by far the best player on the pitch.
City were poor on the night, despite Mario Balotelli’s first-half goal, and they now have to beat group winners Bayern Munich at home in two weeks and hope that Napoli trip up away to Villarreal. Unless City can summon up a magical European night in Manchester, they will be playing in the Europa League next year, which is not what the club’s owners were envisioning when they were bringing in all those players.
Playing in the Europa League will also involve an extra round of games, which will make City’s title ambitions a little bit harder.
Things are slightly better in the red part of Manchester, but not by much. For the third time in five Champions League matches this season, Man United were held to a draw. They now lead Basel by only one point and now much travel to Switzerland in two weeks, knowing that a defeat will send them also into the Europa League.
Even if they get a win in Switzerland, United will in all likelihood finish second in their group, which could mean a group of 16 match-up with Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich.
