Mancini refuses to give up on City after defeat

Edinson Cavani’s double sunk City in Italy, despite Mario Balotelli’s strike, and the result means that even if Mancini’s men win their final game against group winners Bayern Munich in a fortnight’s time, they will be reliant on Napoli slipping up against pointless Villarreal.

But Mancini insisted: “We have another game and Villarreal can beat Napoli.

“It is the first time we have played Champions League but I don’t think Villarreal will lose another game, they can win or draw – why not?

“Everything is not finished – never say never.”

Reflecting on last night’s setback, the Italian added: “We didn’t deserve to lose this game, we should think we can score three or four goals every game. We wanted this because that is our mentality.

“After our equaliser we had two more chances to go 2-1 up, it is strange that we conceded this goal after 10 minutes.

“We had other chances to score, their goalkeeper was fantastic and saved three or four chances, but if you lose probably you made mistakes.

“We conceded two stupid goals, we know Cavani goes on the first post. Cavani is a good player, a good striker, he scores goals and works for the team.”

Manchester United’s hopes also suffered a major setback at Old Trafford as they were held 2-2 by a Benfica outfit.

Sir Alex Ferguson’s men must avoid defeat to FC Basle in Switzerland next month in order to book a place in the last 16.

However, they would almost certainly have to go through as runners-up as, though they are level on points with Benfica, they trail the Portuguese giants on head-to-head record.

United only have themselves to blame too after battling back from conceding an early goal to lead through goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Fletcher, only to let Pablo Aimar snaffle another for the visitors.

Southern League Premier Division side Stourbridge pulled off an FA Cup upset beating 10-man Plymouth 2-0 to book their place in the second round for the first time in their history.

Grimsby beat League Two Port Vale 1-0 after Serge Makofo’s 59th-minute strike.

On a night of upsets, AFC Wimbledon had a 1-0 win over Scunthorpe United at Glanford Park.

Aldershot will travel to Sheffield Wednesday in round two after a 2-0 win over Maidenhead of the Blue Square South.