From MARTIN BLACKBURN
ROBERTO MANCINI admitted he was to blame for another Champions League disaster and insisted: “We need a miracle.”
Manchester City’s hopes of qualifying from the Group of Death are hanging by a thread after a 3-1 drubbing by Dutch champions Ajax.
And defender Micah Richards confessed City’s players were confused by the formation Mancini chose to play as they chased the game.
The Etihad boss declared: “It was my fault because I didn’t prepare well for this game, so I take the blame. I prepared very badly.
“Sometimes you think the game goes one way and it goes another. But Ajax played well — they were better than us.
“I repeat, it was my fault.”
City must now beat Ajax, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in their last three matches and then keep their fingers crossed.
They are five points behind second-placed Madrid, who come to the Etihad in a month’s time.
Mancini said: “It is very difficult. If we win the three games it will be very close. We need it to be a miracle.”
The City boss switched formations as his team threw away the 1-0 lead handed to them by Samir Nasri and went to three at the back and then five.
Richards said: “We just crumbled once the second goal went in.
“We are used to a straight back four. That’s twice we have gone to a back five and conceded but the manager likes it.
“If we want to do well with it we are going to have to work on it.”
Mancini’s men have now conceded seven goals in three matches in this competition.
But the Etihad boss insisted changing his backline was not significant.
He said: “We changed for five minutes to three at the back but we always have 11 players.
“I don’t think that is important. Three, four, five, six or seven defenders. If someone wants that as an excuse, then OK. But it’s not the reason.
“We played a bad game. We made mistakes which usually we don’t do.”
