City entertain Bayern Munich at the Etihad Stadium knowing their destiny is out of their hands, as even a win against the German outfit could see them drop out of Europe’s top competition.
The Italian believes Europe's elite will be rooting for his side to be eliminated, as they see City as a real threat.
"I think every team is worried about Manchester City now, because already - and certainly in the future - we are a team that could be one of the top clubs in the world," Mancini said.
"Napoli want us out, but Bayern want us out too and all the other top clubs will be hoping we go out of the Champions' League because they fear what we can achieve."
The Blues go into the game knowing they need Spanish side Villarreal to do them a favour and take points off Napoli, or any result against Bayern Munich will be in vain.
Despite their predicament, Mancini is adamant his side will be fully focused on the task in hand, and says if they do progress, his players will cause problems for a lot of teams.
"It is hard - this is the hardest group," Mancini said.
"But we have belief, I am very happy with the belief we have in the team. We have to beat Bayern first, that is the key, and then we can worry about the other result."
"We are facing a difficult situation in our group, we have only perhaps a 30 per cent chance, but if we go through we will be a big problem for the others teams."
"If we can get through this then it will be an important moment. We are progressing, and we have a lot of good players - can we win the trophy? We have to get through first and then we will speak, but the other clubs will be hoping we are out."
Earlier in the week, Napoli chairman Aurelio de Laurentiis suggested Manchester City owner Sheikh Mansour could be tempted to use his financial muscle to offer Villarreal an incentive to take points from Napoli.
The 62-year-old was quoted as saying: "I can feel strange things going on surrounding the Villarreal game - princes and sheikhs are getting agitated."
"To think about it would be evil, but sometimes you can guess what might be happening."
However, Mancini laughed off such speculation, saying: "Fortunately Sheikh Mansour is not Italian, and I don't think he is like this - so I can't think about this stupid situation."
"The Italian president (de Laurentiis) has to respect Villarreal first, because they are a serious club, and they always play to win."
"And after, Sheikh Mansour is a very good man, who is not Italian."
0 comments:
Post a Comment