REIGNING ENGLISH Premier League champions Manchester City are on the verge of an early exit from Uefa Champions League, following a defeat and draw in the opening group games against Bayern Munich and AS Roma.

City has struggled to succeed in this competition for five years now and their chances to progress past the group stage this time also seem very slim.

In this season’s campaign, Manchester City was again placed in the so-called group of death alongside Bayern Munich, AS Roma and CSKA Moscow. As in the previous editions, City is again struggling to win their group matches.

With all teams expected to beat CSKA Moscow, Man City needed to produce a very strong performance against a strong but terribly under-performed against Roma in mid week.

Manuel Pellegrini’s side had again lost to German champions Bayern in their opening game and needed a very strong performance in their second game.

Based on City’s recent poor record against Bayern Munich, Roma were the team to be avoided from their particular pot when the draws were made in August.

The English champions seem to be behind both Bayern and Roma in terms of technique and tactical ability.

Roma’s draw lifted them 3 points ahead of the Sky Blue team and with Bayern almost certain to win the group, results between these two sides will be crucial.

If Manchester City fails to qualify past the group stage, it will be the second time in three years.

In 2012-2013 season, Man City had been drawn in a group comprised of Real Madrid, Borrussia Dortmund and Ajax Amsterdam. The Citizens failed to get past the group as both Real Madrid and Dortmund progressed.

Last season, they were drawn in a seemingly easier group where they finished as runners-up behind Bayern. City were eventually knocked-out of the competition by Spanish giants Barcelona in the round of 16.

This time City billionaire owners might have wanted to improve on their previous flaws but the challenge a head seems to surpass the team’s ability.

Their failure to get past group stages this time or failure to improve from last season’s champions’ league performance will keep club billionaires guessing on what to do next in order to improve in Europe.

City has money to attract the best players but have always failed to assemble a formidable team that can compete with the best in Europe.

Their short fall in technique and tactical ability is an indication of a big gap in managerial positions. The current city team is very good defensively but is very naïve upfront.

On Tuesday, their goal came from a penalty after Maicon made an unthinkable mistake to bring down an opponent in the penalty box that was converted by Sergio Aguerro.

Sergio Aguero’s first-half penalty was cancelled by Francesco Totti’s clever chip and equaliser that ended in a draw.

This also means any advancement on last season’s knock-out phase defeat to Barcelona will be a difficult task if Manchester city fail to beat Roma in Italy during the return game or fail to collect maximum points from CSKA Moscow.