Champions League preview: Ajax v Manchester City

Roberto Mancini

He may have delivered the FA Cup and Premier League title, but question marks remain over Roberto Mancini’s ability to win the biggest prize of all.

The Italian has made an inauspicious start to his second Champions League campaign in charge of Manchester City, who have picked up one point from their opening two Group D matches, and is in real danger of experiencing, not for the first time in his managerial career, an early European exit.

During his four-year spell with Italian giants Inter Milan, Mancini never advanced past the quarter-finals of the Champions League, despite having some of the best players in the world at his disposal. At the same club, just two years after Mancini was sacked, the Nerazzurri were crowned European champions under the management of José Mourinho.

It was Mancini’s laudable triumphs in Serie A, rather than his European exploits, which led to him being appointed City manager in 2009 – but having tasted domestic success, the Citizens’ big-spending owners now expect the club to be challenging for the most prestigious trophy in European club football.

Mancini was given the benefit of the doubt last season after City crashed out of the Champions League group stages in their first appearance under the tournament’s current guise – the Premier League side secured the 10 points would which usually be enough to see them through to the last 16, but still lost out to Bayern Munich and Napoli – however, a repeat performance will not be looked upon kindly by Sheikh Mansour and co.

In order to steer City back on course for the knockout stages and avert another premature exit, the manager needs to deliver three points against Ajax in Amsterdam on Wednesday - a clash which falls into the ‘must-win’ category for both teams.

Ajax, the four-time European champions, were thrashed 4-1 at home by Real Madrid in their previous Champions League outing - a fortnight after losing 1-0 in Dortmund - leaving them bottom of the group without a single point and faced with a daunting challenge to turn things around.

Despite being the hosts, Frank de Boer’s men will be the underdogs against City’s star-studded squad, who showed the stuff of champions on Saturday thanks to super-sub Edin Džeko, who has every reason to expect a place in the starting line-up this week.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina international scored twice in the last 10 minutes against West Brom to turn the match on its head and earn a crucial three points for the 10-man reigning champions.

Dutch champions Ajax, meanwhile, conceded two goals in the final 10 minutes to draw 3-3 and drop two valuable points against Heracles.

Therefore, City are the team with the wind in their sails, although it remains to be seen how they cope with the pressure of needing to beat their Eredivisie opponents away from home.

Mancini will be without Spanish playmaker David Silva for the visit to the Dutch capital because of a hamstring injury – but that won’t reduce the difference in the overall gulf in class between the two starting line-ups.

Instead City can call on the likes of Samir Nasri, Yaya Touré and Sergio Aguero for attacking inspiration, while De Boer is expected to field Liverpool flop Ryan Babel as his most advanced player in a 4-3-3 system.

The 25-year-old has enjoyed a decent start to his second stint with Ajax, scoring two goals in his first four appearances, but he is not the star of the team. That honour falls to midfielder Cristian Eriksen, who is now 20 and expected to, one day in the near future, end up at a club similar to City where he can compete for European titles.

That’s presuming, of course, that Mancini first transforms City into a club capable of challenging for such illustrious silverware.

Failure to achieve that primary objective will almost certainly cost him his job somewhere along the line, which makes it imperative that he wins games just like this Wednesday’s.

Prediction: Ajax 1 Manchester City 2

Rob Swan - follow me on Twitter

Join us on Facebook

Follow our Bettor Football updates on Twitter