• Champions League

Mancini confident Man City will beat Bayern Munich

ESPN staff
September 14, 2011
Sergio Aguero hit the bar as Manchester City drew 1-1 with Napoli © PA Photos
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Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany thought his side were too open as they battled back to rescue a point in their Champions League debut against Napoli, but boss Roberto Mancini is convinced they will still qualify from Group A.

In an end-to-end game, the Italian side took the lead through Edison Cavani before defender Aleksandar Kolarov became City's unlikely hero as his free-kick secured a point at the Etihad Stadium. The stalemate allowed Bayern Munich to take a firm grip on the group following their 2-0 win at Villarreal.

Kompany wished the match had not been quite so thrilling, and told Sky Sports: ''It was more open than I would have hoped. We should maybe have scored a goal or two in the first half and it would not have been so difficult in the second.''

It was City's first game in the Champions League and the Belgian said: ''It's a special occasion, everything is completely different to what we are used to in the Premier League. Today we played against a very good Napoli side, credit to them, they did what they needed to do. We'll just learn from this game and we have a good enough team to see this through.''

City manager Roberto Mancini was satisfied with the result and confident they can get a positive result in Germany. He said: ''It was good, the first game as always is difficult.

''It was difficult to play against Napoli because they defend very well and when they went on the attack they were dangerous. We played well but then we conceded a goal because for 10 minutes we played so-so but after we played well and scored, I'm happy.'

As for the occasion, the Italian added: ''We play our first game in the Champions League, maybe some players wanted to win the game alone because we played one touch too many in the first half. We wanted to win but the Champions League is hard, for us it was important to play well."

While it is known as the Group of Death, Mancini has no fear about the challenge ahead. He said: ''We win in Munich the next game.''

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.
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