Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta has admitted that he isn't bothered about playing in the Europa League after his side's exit from the Champions League.
The Premier League champions crashed out of the group stages for the second year running, after drawing 1-1 with Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium prevented them from advancing from Group D.
Despite sitting bottom of the group, City still have a chance to qualify for the Europa League. However Zabaleta says that the club are disappointed to have been knocked out of Europe's elite competition.
"We're disappointed – we needed to win today, it was our last chance to get three points and get closer to qualifying," said Zabaleta. "We've a chance left to qualify for the Europa League, [but] obviously we wanted to qualify in the top two so we're a bit sad about that.
"We had a decent second half and we're sorry not to have won the game. Normally when you play at home it's important to get three point but we didn't win any of our three games and this affects things a lot.
"It's a shame – the second successive season we couldn't qualify for the second phase. We have to to stay positive and keep working hard – the club has a project, to keep growing and hopefully we'll have a better chance next year."
City will travel to group leaders Borussia Dortmund in their final Group D match.
Matt Cotton
