- Champions League
Babel blasts City as 'a team of egos'
Ajax forward Ryan Babel has accused Manchester City's players of letting ego get in the way of their performances in the Champions League this season.
Babel, the former Liverpool winger, was part of the Ajax team that defeated City in the group stages of the competition last month - leaving Roberto Mancini's Premier League champions on the verge of exiting the competition.
The Dutch side travel to the Etihad Stadium for a rematch on Tuesday, a game City must win to retain hope of reaching the next round of the competition. And Babel claims that a lack of cohesion and team spirit has left them in their current perilous position.
"Against City in the first game you could see the perfect example of a real team effort by Ajax against a team of individuals," Babel said, according to the Daily Mail.
"We noticed how the frustration got the better of them during the game. And we saw how the players were directing those frustrations towards each other. That is the danger of a club with so many big-name players and so many big egos.
"When the going gets tough, they are not prepared to do the hard work for each other.
"[Manager Frank] de Boer wants us to understand that we can beat the biggest teams with good football.
"We failed when we lost to Real Madrid, but that made it much sweeter when we did it against Man City."