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City outgun Bayern but still fail

Comment: 0 December 8th, 2011 by: admin

MANCHESTER City beat Bayern Munich alright. That’s the good news.

Bad news is that was not enough for them to advance in the Champions League knockout phase.

City kissed their bid goodbye despite a 2-0 triumph over the already-qualified German side in the teams last Group A game.

Needing a win over Bayern to gain a chance of moving into the last 16, the Premier League leaders struck through David Silva in the 37^th minute and Yaya Toure seven minutes after halftime.

But there was no need to celebrate the victory at the Etihad Stadium as Napoli supplied the heartbreaker.

The Italian outfit prevailed at Villarreal 2-0 and progressed at City’s expense, an outcome losing boss Roberto Mancini regretted.

‘I think the players deserve to play in the Champions League but that’s it, we can do nothing in this moment and our lives continue,’ he said dejectedly. ‘Usually with 10 points, 99 per cent go through but in this group it was not enough.’

Despite the defeat, Bayern coach displayed optimism as he looked forward to the draw set Dec. 16.

‘We were in a difficult group and we’ve won it, which means we’ll play away first,’ he said.  ‘With the team and squad I’ve got, we can beat anyone.’

In other games, Lyon triumphed 7-1 at Dinamo Zagreb to complete their big comeback and made it ahead of Ajax who got a 3-0 dumping from Real Madrid.

CSKA Moscow succeeded 2-1 at Inter Milan to seize the last ticket and complete the final 16 lineup in the next stage.

Silva found the net with a curling shot after Edin Dzeko flicked in an assist following an in-field pass from Gareth Barry.

Toure added to the score sheet by firing a low shot past Bayern goalkeeper Jorg Butt following an Eden Dzeko assist.

Looking forward to their relegation to the Europa League, Mancini said it is harder “because we play Thursday and won’t have a lot of time to recover for the games.’’

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