Gareth Barry suggests failure to beat Napoli over two games cost Manchester City after Champions League exit

Manchester City midfielder Gareth Barry has pointed to the games against Napoli as the defining matches that cost the club a place in the knockout stages of the Champions League.

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City accumulated 10 points in the group stage, usually a tally that would see a team through to the next phase, but with Villarreal failing to pick up a single point it was Napoli and Bayern Munich that narrowly edged out Roberto Mancini’s men.

Barry could not hide his disappointment at exiting at this early stage, but he says the club will now try to win the Europa League.

“Massive disappointment in the dressing room after. To get 10 points and still go out is a shame as well,” Barry told the club's official website.

“Probably that’s the target most teams try get but that’s just the way the group went and now we will go into the Europa League and try do well in that.”

City drew their opening game against Napoli at the Etihad and then lost the return fixture in Naples, and Barry believes it was those results that cost them a place in the next phase as he now turns his attentions to facing a resurgent Chelsea in their next game.

“Yeah possibly there [is where we lost it]. Possibly both games against them – drawing at home against them and then maybe should have got a better result there but it’s over now and now we will look forward to the other competitions," he said.

“We’re not concentrating on anything else other than ourselves, we will just go into the Europa League and try and win that as well as domestically.

“Chelsea’s going to be a great game. They have just picked up, they’ve had great results of late, two wins on the bounce and watching them yesterday [against Valencia on Tuesday] they played some good stuff, so it’s going to be an interesting game.

“Playing in the game you could tell by the atmosphere in the crowd the way the game was going in Spain, but we did our job today but the result went against us in Spain. We were professional and got the job done but obviously we are disappointed in the end.”