‘Toughest group of all’ for City

Manchester City face the mother of all battles to reach the knockout phase of the Champions League after being drawn in the toughest of the groups in Europe’s top club competition.

Patrick Vieira, City’s director of football development, admitted: “You can’t get much worse than that,” after Roberto Mancini’s men were drawn against Real Madrid, Ajax and Borussia Dortmund.

Group D looks a throwback to the days of the old European Cup — it will pit the English champions against the champions of Spain, Germany and Holland.

Yet Vieira believes City, who failed to get out of their group last season, can progress and even go all the way to the final at Wembley next May.

He said: “You can’t get worse than that, it’s a really tough group, the hardest group of all of them.

“But when you look at the football the prospect is really exciting. The players will be excited to play Real Madrid — the first time Manchester City will ever have played Real and the fans will love it to play them and Dortmund and Ajax.”

The group will see Mancini having to pit his wits against Jose Mourinho, who succeeded him at Inter Milan and went on to land the biggest prize in club football. The first meeting will be on the first day of the tournament, at the Bernabeu on September 18.

Vieira played under the Real Madrid manager in Italy and says he has few equals.

Vieira added: “I played under Jose Mourinho at Inter and when you look at his record as a manager you have to put him up there with the best — if not the best — because of his record of what he won as a manager.

“But we can be confident of getting to the next stage. Last season was the first time the club has been in the Champions League so we need to learn, to improve.

“I believe we learned a lot from last year, and I think if we can get out of the group stage you never know where we can go.”

Cristiano Ronaldo, the Real Madrid midfielder, will make his first return to Manchester since leaving United and he admitted Group D was the toughest.

Ronaldo said: “It is the most difficult group, the most competitive, in my opinion and I think that’s the same for most people.

“But we are champions of Spain and we are ready to compete with everybody.”

Juergen Klopp, Borussia Dortmund’s coach, insists they will play their part and be “unpleasant”.

He said: “This group causes anticipation, goose bumps and thrills. We do not feel we have to compete with them in terms of who is better, who is bigger and who is more expensive? But we want to be on that one day their most unpleasant opponents. This group will be a fantastic story.”

Defending champions Chelsea will have their work cut out in Group E, along with Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine, Serie A winners Juventus and Danish champions Nordsjaelland, but should progress.

Manchester United and Arsenal have more straightforward-looking groups. The Gunners are in Group B with Schalke, Olympiakos and Montpellier, while Alex Ferguson’s United will take on Braga, Galatasaray and CFR Cluj in Group H.

There are a couple of glamour ties in prospect for Celtic in Group G — Barcelona are in the group along with Benfica and Spartak Moscow, the current home of their former winger Aiden McGeady.

For Ferguson, the group will be a chance for his side to make amends for the “stupid errors” of last season but warned there will be a hostile environment facing them in Turkey.

“We have the experience of playing against Galatasaray in the past and we will always remember the ‘Welcome to Hell’ banners,” Ferguson said.

“So it’s always a difficult type of match.

“Braga are one of the improving teams in Portugal. We’ve never played Cluj before but, after the experience of last year, we don’t want to make any stupid errors this time. We will play our strongest team to make sure we get through.”

Chelsea club secretary Dave Barnard said: “It’s not going to be easy — Manchester United thought they had an easy group last season and went out early so we cannot afford to do that. We will respect all of our opponents.”

Arsenal’s draw will see striker Olivier Giroud returning to Montpellier and communications director Mark Gonnella said: “It’s great for Olivier to get to go back so soon, but they are the French champions so it will not be easy, and German sides are always strong, while we know about Olympiakos, having played them last season.”