Roberto Mancini has urged his Manchester City side to take a do-or-die mentality into Wednesday’s crunch Champions League clash against Ajax.
City have managed a solitary point from their opening two games so far and desperately need victory in Amsterdam if they’re to avoid an early exit from Europe for the second straight year.
“We need nine points from the last four games [in the Champions League] - but our only thought is three in Amsterdam,” the City manager said. “We think about only the next game after we’ve won in Amsterdam. That will be important.”
Mancini added: “I think this group is worse than last year. But we want to try to do everything we can to go to the next stage. I think we could be in the same situation as last year. A lot depends on this next game.”
SIR ALEX FERGUSON insists he would stand behind his Manchester United players if they walked off the pitch during a match due to racist abuse.
Racism in football has once again been thrown under the spotlight after Danny
Rose was subjected to vile chants during the England Under 21’s match in Serbia last week.
And the United boss, who was left angered on Saturday when Rio Ferdinand refused to wear an anti-racism T-Shirt in the warm-up against Stoke, believes players would be within their rights to walk off the field if they were victims of abuse.
“Do the players walk off? I would not blame them - and that could happen at some point,” he said.
“If it was one of my players who walked off, you would have to support them.”
BAYERN MUNICH won’t let complacency creep into their campaign in the wake of their record-breaking start to the Bundesliga, according to midfielder Thomas Muller.
The Bavarians thumped Fortuna Dusseldorf 5-0 on Saturday to make it eight from eight this season and stretch their lead over defending champions 0 Dortmund to 12 points.
Dortmund recovered from a nine-point deficit to beat Bayern to the title last season, but Muller claims it’s not just the champions they have to worry about.
“There are more teams than just Borussia Dortmund,” he said. “We can be pleased that we have made such a good start to the season and we have learnt to concentrate only on ourselves.
“If we carry on playing like this, then it will be hard for any opponents to beat us,” Muller added.
