Football Orphan: Manchester clubs struggle in CL Matchday 5

Image courtesy of mirrorfootball.co.uk

Manchester United and Manchester City were left stunned last night as both dropped vital points with their Champions League group campaigns now going down to the final game. United are in a fairly straight forward position of having to go to Basel needing a point to progress having struggled to earn a 2-2 draw with Benfica at Old Trafford. If they fail to pick up the point required in Switzerland United will surely look back to Basel’s superb result in Manchester as the killer blow. Basel are a point behind United, but will go into the game full of confidence as they’ve gone from strength to strength in the group, and are within 90 minutes from the Knock out stages.

City are in a torturous position of needing to beat Bayern Munich at the Etihad, while hoping that Villarreal, who are currently pointless in the group can do them a favour against Napoli at the Madrigal. City looked anything but the world beaters we’ve grown accustomed to in the Premier League, as they shipped two sloppy goals due to poor marking. Edinson Cavani punished Roberto Mancini‘s men severely, making no mistake from close range on both occasions.

Should both Manchester clubs be eliminated from the competition only to drop into the Europa League, it could well provide a logistical nightmare not only for television broadcasters, but it could also stretch the resources of the Manchester police, having both clubs vying for the same trophies on the same days. The likes of Sky Sports and ESPN would also prefer to have the option of having either Saturday or Sunday games to choose from instead of instead of having their hands tied when it comes to scheduling. Roberto Mancini has confessed that the odds are against his City side making the knock out stages of this seasons Champions League, while Alex Ferguson remains confident that his team will be in the draw for the business end of the tournament.