GettyImagesSergio Aguero brings City level against Ajax but it's too little, too late

The Dutch have a number of marvellous words that sound like they should either be in a Cocteau Twins song or spoken by hobbits. Flinterdun, I would say, is one of them. It is a word that fits quite nicely with the unravelling of Manchester City's Champions League dreams at the Etihad. City are still in there pumping, but the breathing is shallow, the face is callow and the feet have turned blue.

- Mancini's dream ebbing away
- Frustrated Mancini rages at referee
- Tyler: Group of Death tightens hold on City

As the entire City side came over to congratulate referee Mr Peter Rasmussen, a wide-eyed visitor from Planet Alpha Potter Three at the end of another disappointing European night, Roberto Mancini, his eyes looking like they could ignite a barbecue from a distance of 100 yards, joined the happy throng. This is a multicultural bunch with little time for academic pursuits, so we can forgive them their irregular English. As they jockeyed for position in front of the, shall we say, hapless Mr Rasmussen, Pablo Zabaleta led the way: "Every ***** single time was offside!", he suggested wagging an Argentinian finger. His manager, eyes by now burning holes in the very fabric of Mr Rasmussen's tight yellow polyester shirt, shouted "Was goal! Was goal!", but Mr Rasmussen speaks not in the tongues of human beings, so the belated show of unity out there on the Etihad turf became a case of too little too late.

In effect, that is what City's entire effort was, despite a moving comeback from prone to upright. Too little too late. It is once again all but over for City in the Champions League. Failings on this occasion matched those on other sweaty, tumultuous nights. Failures by the match officials do not mask the fact that City have not earned their handsome corn on Tuesdays and Wednesdays at all this Autumn. For all the bleating about a harshly disallowed goal and the ending of the match with Mario Balotelli's shirt being hauled off his back by the plucky but premature Van Rijn for what should have been a penalty, this was clearly not quite good enough for the circumstances.

Celebrating any match you accept is do or die by going two-down to an energetic but limited opponent smacks of gross carelessness. Wearing carpet slippers on such a night, as Sergio Aguero apparently did, also looks somewhat foolhardy. If the first goal had a touch of the fantasy about it, Gareth Barry's slovenly marking for the second seemed real enough. On both occasions the scorer sought to rub City followers' noses further into the dirt by wearing the name De Jong on the back of his shirt. This a clear reminder that the dearly departed Nigel might have dealt with the marking differently to Barry and might have dealt with the tackling differently to Javi Garcia. One vital and often overlooked point in this early season of recriminations in East Manchester is the barely disguised fact that Roberto Mancini's summer signings - with the exception of the highly promising Matija Nastasic - have not enhanced this squad one iota.

Irony befell us all before kickoff, when news filtered through that long-term summer target Daniele de Rossi, whose very public display of loyalty to Roma kept him firmly in Italy in August, might after all be available to offers at Christmas. These are the players that make that crucial 2% difference to a set-up that is already practically running on automatic. City are finding it hard to improve on last season's brilliance and it is easy to understand why, but here we have one tournament where room for improvement equates to a large male elephant's waistband. Here there are acres of space just waiting to be claimed.

Whereas it might be imprudent to offer the likes of Norwich or Swansea a two goal lead, it is feasible that, by the end, that lead might have been clawed back. Do such a thing in continental sparring of this calibre and you are a doode eend*. Two soft goals left City with a Dutch mountain to climb. That the game was level at 2-2 when it stuttered nervously into time added-on was down to the tenacity and willpower apparently missing in Mancini's mercenary squad.

Don't be fooled, there is plenty of guts, plenty of determination in this side of well paid superstars. What there is not at the moment is the rub of the green, especially in this tournament of harsh lessons: leading in Madrid with three minutes to go; clear chance missed for two-nil in Amsterdam before the game turned; penalty appeal turned away in the final minute of injury time in the return on Tuesday night. It is moments like these that make the difference between success and failure at this level. The dividing line between success and failure at this level is wafer thin. Or, as the Dutch like to call it, flinterdun.

* dead duck

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