City finished with a flourish on Wednesday night as they impressively beat Bayern Munich 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium, but they remained third in Group A as Napoli beat Villarreal in Spain. The results mean the Premier League leaders will drop into the Europa League, but Mancini could not fault the effort of his players. Mancini said: "We are disappointed because we wanted to go through in the Champions League. "I am personally very sorry for the club, our supporters and my players. "I think they deserve to play in the Champions League but that is it, we can do nothing now. "Usually with 10 points, teams always go through - or 99%. But in this group it was not enough. "I think Napoli got one point more than us and they deserved to go through." City's slim hopes of progress were still alive with 65 minutes gone as they led through David Silva and Yaya Toure while Napoli were still being held. That changed as Napoli then scored twice and the closing stages were played out in a subdued atmosphere. Mancini vowed to lift the gloom and launch a concerted effort to win the Europa League as consolation. The Italian said: "For Manchester City, it is an important trophy. "We need to win more trophies, if possible. "I can understand at this moment thinking it is not - it is not the Champions League. "But for us, it will be important if we can get to the final. For Manchester City that would be good." Mancini vowed to put the campaign - City's first in the Champions League - down to experience and come back stronger next year. He said: "It is my opinion that we need to improve as a squad to play better in the Champions League than this year. "For us it will be important to improve in the next six months in the Premier League and try to win the Europa League. "Then next year we can do better in the Champions League. "It was our first time in the Champions League and we were in the worst group. "It was difficult but we can't change it now. Many congratulations to Napoli." Arch-rivals Manchester United also exited the competition on the same night but Mancini did not think that would affect the two sides' title challenges. He said: "For the Premier League, that doesn't change anything. "Both teams will play in the Europa League. "The difference could be that the Europa League is harder, playing on Thursdays and trying to recover for games, but only this." Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes, with his side having already won the group, rested most of his star names. He felt the team he fielded acquitted themselves well and reflected on a satisfactory overall group stage. Heynckes said: "I am pleased with my team's performance - it wasn't going to be easy with such a new line-up and City were highly motivated. "But we were in a very difficult group and we won it. I think my team has performed very well in this group stage." Heynckes thought City, who lost away to both Bayern and Napoli, just lacked experience at the top European level. He said: "I think European competition needs experience - from the players and as a team. "City haven't quite reached that collective level yet and that is perhaps why they will now play in the Europa League. "It takes a team years to develop at this level but I think Roberto Mancini is slowly getting it together in terms of forming a new team."
