Manchester City will be ready for United says Roberto Mancini

Derby takes place on Sunday

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini (GETTY IMAGES)

Manchester City must quickly regroup after their dismal Champions League campaign came to a suitably sorry end against Borussia Dortmund.

Julian Schieber scored the only goal at the Westfalenstadion as City slumped to a loss that left them bottom of Group D and without even the consolation of a place in the Europa League.

Roberto Mancini's men now have until Sunday to get the disappointment out of their system before facing rivals Manchester United in an eagerly-anticipated, top-of-the-table derby in the Barclays Premier League.

Mancini said: "I don't think there will be a problem with morale.

"We didn't lose the Champions League tonight - it's clear that tonight we lost the chance to qualify for the Europa League.

"But I think that after that, it is important that we only think about the derby.

"We have five days to recover our strength, and then I don't think there will be a problem."

City already knew they could not reach the knockout stages and there was a feeling their Premier League title defence would be better served by being out of Europe altogether.

Mancini disputed that in the build-up but admitted there could now be benefits.

He said: "It could be a good thing because we won't be playing on Thursdays.

"But we are playing against a team like United, that is used to playing every week in the Champions league and the Premier League.

"It depends on us now, I think."

City were unable to find a way through an obstinate German side for whom, having already secured top spot in the group, there was no urgency.

In what proved a slow-paced affair, Edin Dzeko twice forced Roman Weidenfeller to save while Carlos Tevez worked hard but Dortmund were the greater threat, especially in the second half.

Joe Hart saved well from Ivan Perisic and brilliantly from Kevin Grosskreutz before Schieber turned in a Jakub Blaszczykowski cross in the 57th minute.

City could not recover, although Tevez and Sergio Aguero shot straight at Weidenfeller.

It was their third away defeat in the competition and their meagre final haul of three points is the worst by an English side, lower than Blackburn's four points in 1995.

Mancini claimed he was not embarrassed by the situation.

He said: "It can be embarrassing if, when you play, you don't play at 100%.

"But when you do play 100%, you can lose.

"We wanted to try to get in the Europa League because that would have been another competition for us to try to win."

City were handed a tough group, with Real Madrid and Ajax making up the quartet, but Hart did not look for excuses.

Hart told Sky Sports: "We've not qualified, we've not even got in the Europa League.

"We wanted a win and we've let ourselves down. We wanted to do it and if that meant Europa League then great. We've only got ourselves to blame."

PA