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Man City didn’t win a single game in disastrous second Champions League season
Man City didn't win a single game in disastrous second Champions League season,Manchester City, then managed by Roberto Mancini, set a new record low points tally for an English team with their miserable showing in the Champions League in 2012

Man City didn’t win a single game in disastrous second Champions League season

Fresh from winning the Premier League title in epic fashion thanks to that Sergio Aguero goal, Manchester City were tipped to go far in the Champions League the following season.

Instead they exited the competition with their tails between their legs without winning a single game. For just the club’s second-ever Champions League campaign, City were admittedly drawn into an incredibly tough group which contained Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax.

But a squad containing the likes of Aguero, David Silva and Carlos Tevez would still have expected to fare much better. They should have started with a famous win against Real at the Bernabeu, where they led twice in the closing stages, only to lose 3-2.

Despite the defeat, the performance suggested City could hang with Europe’s best. However, they failed to recover, drawing at home to Dortmund and then taking just one point from back-to-back games against Ajax.

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Mancini’s side held Real at the Etihad thanks to an Aguero penalty but defeat in their final group match in Dortmund meant they didn’t even secure the consolation of a Europa League spot, finishing bottom of the group.

Their tally of three points replaced Blackburn's record low in 1995-96 as the worst by an English team in the Champions League. Rovers finished at the foot of a group containing Spartak Moscow, Legia Warsaw and Rosenborg on four points.

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(Image: AMA/Corbis via Getty Images)
Roberto Mancini during Manchester City's dramatic defeat to Real Madrid in 2012 (Image: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)

After the Dortmund defeat, Mancini insisted: “I'm not embarrassed about where we have finished, or the points tally. There could be embarrassment if we had not played with 100% effort. You can still play 100% and lose, and that is what happened.

“But we have a big problem, because if we want to win, we have to score. Otherwise, 0-0 is the best we can hope for, and at the moment, we are not scoring goals, certainly not like we were last season. We are creating chances but we are not scoring.

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“This is a big problem that we need to work at. We need to resolve this problem if we want to start winning games.”

City go into Thursday’s Champions League draw as holders and favourites to win the famous trophy again.