Pep Guardiola has admitted Manchester City are in a battle to salvage their Champions League knockout qualification hopes after defeat at Juventus.
City had gone two seasons without a defeat in Europe in regulation time before this season, and have now lost two of their last three in the Champions League - the latest coming at Juventus to leave City winless in nine of their last ten games in all competitions.
Defeat leaves City 22nd in the 36-team league phase, just one point above the cut-off to qualify for a play-off tie in the new year with two games left. A top eight finish is almost certainly beyond them and Guardiola has adjusted his focus to simply ensuring some form of Champions League football after the league phase.
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City followed Guardiola's pre-match instruction to keep things simple at Juventus but struggled to translate that into goalscoring chances and they were left to rue two more costly defensive mistakes.
But Guardiola disagreed with the idea that it was mistakes that cost City in Turin. "That wasn't the reason today," he said.
"We miss the last pass, not arrive in the six yard box and penalty spot many times and have the composure and made the moment and assist. That was the difference today. But we are the best, I love my team, the way we play. The results are not going to convince me the opposite.
"The whole night, we played really good. At 1-0 we insist more. We are a team, as quicker we attack, the quicker they make the transitions. We play the right tempo, I would say the chances, we didn't shoot but we were so close. One day we will find it. I like a lot my team."
Regarding City's Champions League standings, Guardiola believes one win from the last two games will be enough to secure a play-off spot, and perhaps even a single point from the trip to Paris Saint-Germain and home visit of Club Brugge.
"It's the target [to qualify], we need one point, three points. We have two games. We go to Paris to try to do it and the last game at home.
"We played really good against Inter and Feyenoord and created problems but when you go to Sporting, Turin and Paris our three games away were really tough and you have to accept it. When we turn it around we will not forget that period."