Man City not giving up on European hopes

Manchester City have still not given up on progressing to the knockout stages of the Champions League, according to midfielder Gareth Barry.

City need to beat Bayern Munich on Wednesday and hope Villarreal at least hold Napoli to a draw in order to avoid a group stage exit in their maiden campaign in Europe’s premier club competition.

But although their chances are now slim, Barry insists City have not abandoned hope of progression and are not yet resigned to concentrating purely on domestic competition.

“It would be a massive disappointment (to go out),” Barry said.

“We’re not going to lie and just say that we could concentrate on the Premier League, because it would be a big disappointment.”

“But it’s the first time the club has been in the Champions League and, although we feel we’ve got the quality to progress, it’s another learning curve.”

“If we go out we’ll just concentrate on the rest of the games, the Premier League and the other competitions.”

“But we’re confident. We believe that Villarreal have got the team that can get a result against Napoli and the bottom line is that we’ve got to beat a very good team here in Bayern Munich.”

“That will be a hard target in itself but that’s our main aim. It’s tough but we can do it and we’ll just keep our fingers crossed that Villarreal can do a job for us.”

City’s European struggles are all the more mystifying when contrasted with their blistering start to the Premier League season.

Roberto Mancini’s men have blown away even their biggest rivals to open up a five point gap at the top of the table, which they preserved with an impressive 5-1 win at home to Norwich on Saturday, and Barry admits he is awed by the attacking talent among his team-mates.

“The squad is fantastic in terms of the attacking ability,” said Barry.

“You pick up the ball and you’re looking at the four or five players ahead who you can give the ball to and let them create chances.”