Roberto Mancini took the blame for Manchester City's shock 3-1 defeat at the hands of Ajax in their Champions League game at the Amsterdam Arena.
City failed yet again in the Champions League stage, as the home side, courtesy goals from Siem De Jong, Niklas Moisander and Christian Eriksen, carved the away side's defense wide open to take their first points of the campaign. Samir Nasri had given City the lead in the 22nd minute, but it all fell apart from there for the English Premier League champions.
"I think they played better football than us," Mancini said. 'Probably it is my fault, I prepared badly for this game, and I did not prepare the players. I take the blame for this defeat. We did not underestimate them, but we prepared differently from normal and we prepared the wrong way. It is my fault and I accept this.
"We changed formation for five minutes, when we wanted a player in the hole, but on the pitch we still had 11 players. We conceded the two goals before we switched formation so that is not important. If others want to make that excuse, that is not important."
City now lie five points behind second-placed Real, and six adrift of leaders Borussia Dortmund after their 2-1 win over the Spanish champions, while Ajax are third with three points. Mancini admitted qualifying for the knockout stages was now a distant dream.
"It is very difficult to qualify now. There is one team with seven points and one with six and one with three. It would be a miracle. It will not be difficult to (pick players up mentally). When you play football you know you can play a bad game like tonight, but the season is long and you play a lot of games."
Ajax manager Frank De Boer was happy with his side's performance, praising his players for putting in a wonderful effort when nobody had given the Dutch champions a chance.
"I know what we are capable of," De Boer said. "Today we have seen a fairly good Ajax team and we played good football in certain phases. We played against a top team. When you are champions of England, you are a top team.
"Today we showed what we want to do. It is to our credit that we beat a top English side. We played dominant football and they did not have an answer.
"I always get a bit tired of people saying it was because of the opponent (playing badly). Our players were dominating, and City had no answer to that. When we went behind, it was because we did not pay enough attention, and we got punished for that.
"After the goal we recovered very well and equalised right before the break. Now we have to fight to stay in Europe -- either in the Champions League or Europa League."
The top two qualify to the last-16 of the Champions League with the third-placed side entering the second phase of the Europa League.