Manchester City - the English Premier League champions - are not having the best time in the Champions League.
Eliminated in the group stages last year, City have picked up just one point from two games so far, and that too thanks to a last-gasp penalty against an unlucky Borussia Dortmund side in their previous game.
With that in mind, Roberto Mancini will know nothing but a win will do at the Amsterdam Arena against an Ajax side who are yet to pick up a single point. While City have mastered the art of pulling off victories and picking up vital results in the league, that art has eluded them in Europe's elite competition, and Mancini will know his future as City manager lies on the fact that they need to do well in all competitions.
"It's always difficult to put your finger on why City aren't performing like they are in the Premier League," Ajax manager Frank De Boer said. "Maybe it's a bit like Dortmund last year -- they played great in the Bundesliga but didn't do very well in the Champions League. Things can change very quickly in this team because they have so much quality."
Chelsea, however, took nearly a decade to win the Champions League after Roman Abramovich's takeover, and winning the coveted prize is not easy, with Arsenal, for all their success under Arsene Wenger, yet to hoist the famous trophy.
"This group is very difficult but we have four games," Mancini said. "Ajax play fantastic football but they have a young team. It's difficult to play away, and it's clear that we can lose our chances (of qualifying), but we need to do our best.
"We don't have experience as a club but all our players have experience in the Champions League. Maybe as a club we need to get experience in the Champions League, but we have players with that experience."
City will still be without their excellent playmaker David Silva, who is yet to recover from the hamstring injury he suffered while on international duty with Spain. But apart from the other long-term absentees, Mancini will have a full squad to choose from, meaning two of the four high-caliber strikers - Edin Dzeko, Carlos Tevez, Mario Balotelli and Sergio Aguero - will miss out on a start.
Dzeko did his chances no harm by scoring two well-take goals against West Brom to hand City a vital 2-1 victory. "It's impossible that when a player sits on the bench he will be happy, but when you play at a top team, we have 15 more top players and you can only put in 11 players," Mancini added.
"But we play a lot of matches in a year and every player has a chance to play in a season. I speak with them, not every day, but it's important. Last year, Edin and Mario came off the bench in the last game and one scored and the other gave the assist.
"Twenty years ago maybe we played one match a week, now we play every three days so every player gets a chance."
Ajax will need to get their act together in the Group of Death, which will see Real Madrid face off against Dortmund in the other game, if they are to stand any chance of qualifying, something that manager Frank De Boer is well aware of. "If we want to survive in Europe we need a result from this match and that's our goal," he said.
"Against Madrid we played a bad match, they're good opponents but we were well below our level. Our team is learning so let's hope they are quick students. We must have confidence that we can perform much better and if we do that, we can get some points."
Expected Lineups: Ajax: Vermeer; Van Rhijn, Alderweireld, Moisander, Blind; Schone, Poulsen, Eriksen; Babel, De Jong, Boerrigter.
Manchester City: Hart; Richards, Kompany, Lescott, Clichy; Milner, Barry, Toure, Nasri; Dzeko, Aguero.
Prediction: 1-0 to City
