BBC
City were already out of the Champions League before Tuesday's 1-0 defeat by Borussia Dortmund, but a win would have booked a Europa League spot. Their tally of three points is the lowest by an English side in the group stage of the competition. "It can be embarrassing if you don't play at 100%. But when you do play 100%, you can lose," said Mancini.
Blackburn previously held the record for the lowest points accumulated by an English side with their four points in 1995. Rovers managed one victory in their six matches but City failed to win a game as they were knocked out at the group stage for the second successive year.
Last season they finished third in a group featuring Bayern Munich, Napoli and Villarreal with a much more respectable 10 points that gave them Europa League qualification. Defeat at the Westfalenstadion on Tuesday meant Mancini's side finished bottom of Group D.
A victory would have seen them finish third again, above Ajax, put them in the Europa League and boosted their co-efficient - statistics used for ranking - crucial for their seeding in European competition next season.
But it would also have meant a tiring Thursday-Sunday cycle of up to nine matches were they to reach this year's Europa League final in Amsterdam.
Despite admitting he wanted to reach Europe's second-tier competition, Mancini believes not qualifying will help them in their bid to retain the Premier League title. "Clearly this can help us win the Premier League because we don't play in the Europa League," Mancini said. "But getting into it was our target. We wanted to win.
Mancini himself has struggled as a manager in Europe's elite competition and has never got past the quarter-final stage having reached the last eight with Inter Milan twice. However, the Italian remains confident his side will improve on their showing next season - assuming they qualify - and looks to Dortmund as an example of how progress can be made.
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