Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola was still cheerful after his side lost 2-0 at Juventus in the Champions League on Wednesday, continuing their dismal run.
Guardiola men languish 22nd in the Champions League standings, three points away from automatic disqualification with two matches to play.
The Premier League victors have lost just one of their last 10 games in all competitions.
“We played good, really really good,” Guardiola told. “And we were down on the last pass, the last move, of course, a few plays go by, but I love these guys, they just did everything and they tried, and we’re living in this moment, hopefully we can make changes and get results, Guardiola said.
“It’s hard, it’s hard in the Champions League in Europe, but we play really good.
City have two more games in their group before matches against Paris St Germain and Club Brugge.
Because of the new format of the competition, the eight best teams following eight league rounds go into the round of 16 and skip a playoff (which is virtually out of the question for Guardiola’s men).
“We have two games. We require maybe one point, one victory, the last is home, and that is because of Feyenoord (where City gave up a 3-0 lead to lose 3-3) and especially Inter Milan (a 0-0 draw),” the Spaniard added.
But we lost three games away and that was just so, so, so tough and you have to take it. And when we come back to it, we never lose that time, we remember more what we’ve done before, and what we’re going to do after.” – Paul Krugman.
Manchester United are on tour at home to City in the Premier League on Sunday.
At the same time, Guardiola’s old club Barcelona dispatched Borussia Dortmund to qualify for the knockout phase of Europe’s prestigious club competition.
There was also a winner among Arsenal, AC Milan, Atletico Madrid, Lille, Feyenoord and Stuttgart.
With 15 points Barcelona trail Liverpool only on 15 after the tie-breaker against Dortmund at home in Germany (they had Ferran Torres in goal).
Raphinha sent Barca in front on his 17th of the season early in a spectacular second half.
Serhou Guirassy equalised on the hour, but Torres replaced him and, on 75 minutes, he converted a loose ball after Fermin Lopez’s goal was blocked.
Guirassy then made it 2-2 in quick succession but Torres struck again and brought the game home for Barca five minutes from time.
With their record Barcelona are like Liverpool well-positioned to reach the top eight without having to undergo the play-offs to advance to the last 16.
The Gunners are third on 13 points after an easy 3-0 victory over Monaco in London.
Bukayo Saka twice made it 1-0 for the Gunners in the opening half and 2-0 after 78 minutes when the visitors capitalized on nightmare Monaco defence.
Saka then headed in a late third with the last touch coming from substitute Kai Havertz.
Mikel Arteta’s side is one of six teams with 13 points, while Lille also are on 13 after defeating Sturm Graz 3-2 in France on a late winner from Hakon Haraldsson.
With goals by Osame Sahraoui and Mitchel Bakker, Lille were on 2-0 until Otar Kiteishvili and Mika Biereth levelled for the Austrian champions.
But it was Icelandic midfielder Haraldsson who handed Lille their fourth win of the season.
Atletico comfortably beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1 after Antoine Griezmann twice, Julian Alvarez once, after a great finish.
David Strelec scored for the Slovaks, who are one of three teams already eliminated having lost six of six. Other teams: RB Leipzig, Young Boys.
Milan beat Red Star Belgrade 2-1 at San Siro as Tammy Abraham scored with three minutes left.
Milan 1-0 after being set up by Rafael Leao but Nemanja Radonjic struck back for the Serbs who have lost five of their last six matches and will soon be on their way out.
Benfica had moved up one point to the play-off spots with a 0-0 home draw against Italian team Bologna, who have scored only one goal in six matches and will stay there.
Feyenoord were still in with a chance of reaching the last 16 after a 4-2 win over Sparta Prague in Rotterdam through Gernot Trauner, Igor Paixao, Anis Hadj Moussa and Santiago Gimenez.
Stuttgart kept their chances of progress alive as they came from behind to take the game to Young Boys 5-1.
Lukasz Lakomy got Young Boys in front before Angelo Stiller levelled after 45 minutes, before Enzo Millot, Chris Fuehrich, Josha Vagnoman and Yannik Keitel each made a double halftime.
Next round Champions League matches will take place on January 21 and 22, and the season finale is the following week.